Prince Named to USA Basketball Team

My brother (Who's home in the D searching for a car. Turns out he's actually going to be staying in state for a little while at least. Got an internship in Pontiac. Oddly enough, it's not exactly for the auto industry although he will be visiting a lot of the plants around there to do energy audits – he's done this kind of thing before, it's pretty cool, actually. And he wants to get something American made because, well, Pontiac is union country and he doesn't want to get lynched or keyed or whatever. My sister's not convinced that's actually necessary, but his employer recommended it, and having worked around some UAW types and with the climate being what it is, I don't see the harm. It's only going to last a few weeks but he kinda needs some transportation to get there. But, hey, he went four years without a car so he's past due. One of our relatives back in the mother country works for an auto supplier or affiliate or whatever – which isn't saying much since that includes about half the companies in Detroit – so there's going to be some shenanigans to get a better deal. My family has Scotch-Irish roots and we're dirt cheap like that, at times. ) passed along this article from the Free Press. Seems Tayshaun Prince – my brother's favorite player (I was a Big Ben man. That's working out great for me, by the way.) - is now on the USA basketball team.

And while I could care less about USA basketball and our latest attempt to prove US dominance at putting a ball through a hoop – bring back the amateurs, I say – I think Tayshaun is exactly the sort of player such a team needs.

As the article says, he's not a star, he's a second banana. But despite our best attempts to jigger the rules and pack teams with Dream Team superstars, we just can't send an All-Star team over and expect to win anymore. Beating international competition will take an actual team. And that means having complimentary players like Prince on the squad. My brother's long held that Tayshaun could go to another team and be a star himself but on the Pistons, he's a supporting player. Forget his championship credentials, the best attribute Prince brings to the team is the fact that he's willing to sacrifice his stats, to work within the system, and make his teammates better. At the same time, he's still good enough to raise his level of play when he needs to – as anybody who saw him run down Reggie Miller can attest. He'll do the fundamental things, the things that often get overlooked and go uncaptured in box score. It's something that's often overlooked when building a team but not everyone can be a star. You need that supporting cast around them before you can get things done.

And I can't think of a better example of that kind of player than Tayshaun Prince.

So, good choice.