American men: Team LeBronze

ATHENS — Postmortem began before the United States men's basketball team breathed its last gasp in these Olympics last night.

The nagging question — what happened? — was being posed even as Team USA, to its credit, rebounded from Friday's semifinal loss to Argentina by outgunning Lithuania 104-96 in the bronze-medal game at Olympic Indoor Hall.

Actually, it has been eating at USA Basketball officials since the team opened Olympic play with a 19-point loss to Puerto Rico two weeks ago. And with its gold-medal chances gone, it weighed heavily on the minds of players and coaches all day yesterday.

"This probably was the hardest game I've ever been involved in as a coach," U.S. coach Larry Brown said. "And I think my players probably would say the same thing.

"To come back after that loss with the expectations people have for us, this game to me was a very good thing for American basketball. These guys showed a lot of class and a lot of character."

The Americans certainly had to play inspired basketball to beat a Lithuanian team that was 21 of 37 from three-point range.

Lithuania, which handed the U.S. one of its three defeats in these Olympics, seemed poised to shut the United States out of a medal — something that has never happened in America's 15 Olympic basketball appearances.

"We're professionals at the highest level," guard Richard Jefferson said.

"And even though we didn't win the gold, and people want to talk a lot of stuff about us, we gave our all every single game."

Brown praised his players and suggested that fans and media should appreciate — not condemn — the fact that they came to Athens, while at least 14 other NBA players pulled out or declined invitations.

"It's not about who didn't come," NBA commissioner David Stern said. "We're all in sports. You take your team to the gym, and you play with who you've got, and you either win or you lose.

"This carping and whining is not fair to the young men and young women who are representing our country very well."

After the bronze-medal victory, Brown declined to offer specific ideas for how to improve the selection process. But he did say that he hopes there will be a day when NBA and international FIBA rules are standardized, so that everyone in the world plays by the same rules.

Stu Jackson, the NBA senior vice president of operations who runs USA Basketball, said he believes that rules eventually will be standardized, but said it wasn't a major problem in these Games.

Stern, Jackson and Brown agree that Team USA would have fared better in Athens with more training time. They say USA Basketball must find a solution to that problem before the 2006 World Championships and the 2008 Olympics.

"The training period that we have is not now sufficient enough to come into international competition and outright win — the way that the Dream Team did or the team in '96 did," Jackson said. "Those days are gone."

Stern suggested possibilities such as pulling the U.S. team together for a training camp a year before the Olympics, assembling a team of international players to practice against them and hiring international referees to officiate practice games.

Without bigger names like Jason Kidd, Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett, the U.S. was forced to turn to young stars like Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Amare Stoudemire. While clearly talented, none of the quartet, three NBA rookies and a two-year veteran, had enough experience to deal with the savvier international players.

A young squad that averaged less than 24 years of age was unable to turn to Tim Duncan, its steadiest player. The two-time NBA MVP fouled out after 19 minutes yesterday; it was his second disqualification of the tournament. He picked up at least three fouls in all but one game.

Duncan admitted "it was very difficult to play under these circumstances," adding he was "95 percent" certain he wouldn't play in another FIBA tournament.

"Tim Duncan is one of the best players in the world ... and he can't play three straight minutes in the Olympics," Jefferson said. "The international game is a three-point league because they do not let big men play. Tim got ridiculous foul calls."