September 26, 2006--Europe 18 1/2; USA 9 1/2

In the good-old-days, the US Dream Team, our 1992 Olympic basketball team, would waltz through the competition, winning every game. The only suspense was how many points they would score and how badly they would trounce the opposition. But last month, at the Word Basketball Championship held in Japan, the latest version of the Dream Team lost to Greece, yes Greece, and thus didn’t even make the finals. We were left to contend for the bronze medal, yes, the bronze!

(As a side bar, the women’s basketball team lost to the Russians in their semifinals.)

Back in March, in another sport invented in America, baseball, prior to the start of the Major League season, there was the World Baseball Classic. In a sort of version of the current Survivor TV show where contestants are divided into teams by race, the WBC organized teams by nationality—there was thus a Venezuelan team, a Dominican team, a Japanese team, even a Cuban team, and also an US team. Japan beat Cuba in the final 10-6. The US won-lost record was 3 wins, 3 loses. Korea, on the other hand, was 6 and 1.

For Yankee fans, it was disconcerting to see Mariano Rivera pitching for Panama; Bernie Williams out in center field for Puerto Rico; but less of a surprise to find A Rod, Alex Rodriquez, at third base for the USA team. (He is even conflicted about his nationality.)

And at the Ryder Cup matches just this past weekend, for the fifth time in six attempts, the US golf team, led by Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Jim Furyk, ranked number one, two, and three in the world, was mauled by the Europeans, losing by one of the widest margins in history—18 ½ to 9 ½. (See NY Times article below.)

There is as a result a lot of national soul-searching. What’s going on here? It’s bad enough that all of our manufacturing and half our services have been outsourced to Mexico and Bangalore; but basketball? And baseball? What could be next?

I’ll bet, if this trend continues, when you call the American Express 800 number to ask a question about your bill, someone in Mumbai will answer the phone. But thank goodness that will never happen! .

Pretty much everyone who is wringing their hands and commenting on the Ryder Cup and the two WBCs are saying we are losing because our athletes do not play well as team members—our strength is characterized by individual initiative and entrepreneurship. And individuals who excel in this way do not perform well when forced to play together. Tiger Woods, as a sort of golfing Lone Ranger, is almost undefeatable: but to expect him to team up effectively with a rival, say, Phil Mickelson, is asking too much.

Though we rue this on one level because we want our national teams to win and thereby demonstrate the superiority of our system, there is another side to this—the belief that as individuals, and to us that’s what really counts, we still dominate the world.

Maybe yes and maybe no. Even in professional sports, in our own sports of baseball and basketball, the Most Valuable Players and Cy Young Award winners are tending more and more not to be from the US.

And then, spiraling out to the larger, much more important world, how competitive are our “teams,” for example our military, on the ground? Perhaps, in the world that really counts, including in the generation of new ideas and technologies, being able to work successfully in various forms of teams is what wins.

In that world, Europe 18 ½ ; US 9 ½ doesn’t feel very comfortable.