By Erik Brady, USA TODAY
BEIJING — The USA enters Thursday's semifinals against Russia (MSNBC, live, 8 a.m. ET) as the most powerful basketball team in the women's Olympic tournament. Talent is a big part of that.
So is this: The Americans play with genuine joy.
On their WNBA teams they are stars. Here they are role players. They say they accept this as the price of greatness. Do we believe them? Their smiles swear it's so.
Watch them in warmups, smiling and slapping hands and basking in the chemistry and camaraderie that come with winning. Watch them during games, leaping off the bench to cheer a teammate's wicked crossover dribble. "This team has the best chemistry of any Olympic team I've been on," four-time Olympian Lisa Leslie says. "And I worried about that because we only had a few days together" before leaving for China.
They play passionately against one another in the WNBA. Some played at rival colleges that despised one another. Can they really put all that aside for sake of team?
Heck, no. Sometimes team chemistry is best measured in gibes.
No rivalry burns hotter than Connecticut and Tennessee. Team USA has two starters from UConn and three top reserves from UT. How's that working out? "We put that behind us once we wear red, white and blue," UConn's Diana Taurasi says. She could leave it there, but that wouldn't be Taurasi. "We have the most national championships out of the group, so we don't bring it up," Taurasi says, bringing it up just as loudly as she can.
The team's Lady Vols — Candace Parker, Kara Lawson and Tamika Catchings — are not within earshot, so Southern Cal grad Tina Thompson returns fire. "Let's talk championships," she demands. "USC doesn't equate to anything," Taurasi scoffs. "What, Elite Eight?" "Let's talk championships at the next level," Thompson says, leaning in for full effect. (She has four WNBA rings with the Houston Comets from 1997 to 2000.)
"We got rings," chimes in Sue Bird, the other UConn grad. (Bird won hers with the Seattle Storm in 2004, Taurasi hers with the Phoenix Mercury last year.) "Not four you don't," Thompson counters. "Doesn't count when there's only four teams in the league," Taurasi razzes. "Hah! Whooh!"
This is what makes Team USA go: Chemistry, camaraderie and constant catcalls. "The secret is we really like each other," DeLisha Milton-Jones says. "We have no choice. You may have had a run-in with someone in a WNBA season. It doesn't matter at this point. It's a sisterhood. That's what it's all about.
"We're a band of sisters fighting for our country. You have to have some type of passion about it for yourself and for each other. Every minute you're out on the court, it's not that we're doing it for me we're doing it for we. And when you do it that way things work out."
Every minute, as Milton-Jones puts it, is precisely on point. Thompson leads Team USA in minutes played with a touch less than 20 per game — 16 fewer than she gets with the Comets. Milton-Jones plays the fewest at nearly 11 per game — 22 fewer than she gets with the Los Angeles Sparks.
The 12 players left their WNBA teams on July 27 and blended as one at a quickie-camp at Stanford for three days before flying to China.
"I asked them to go from their WNBA jersey one day to a USA Basketball jersey the next — and then kick it up a notch," coach Anne Donovan says. "And they have done everything I've asked."
Women's basketball gold-medal game
(Saturday: 10 p.m.)
The women will play for their fourth consecutive gold medal and their third consecutive against Australia and Lauren Jackson.
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