United States can’t just show up and win anymore

ATHENS — Michael Phelps lost. The U.S. men’s basketball team lost. And the Summer Olympics took a nasty twist for America on Sunday.

In a couple of performances both notable for their shock value, Phelps and the rest of the U.S. 100-meter freestyle relay team only managed a bronze medal and Puerto Rico humiliated a team stuffed with NBA players, 92-73.

The U.S. had won the men’s 4x100 swimming relay in every Olympic year from 1964-1996 before finishing second to Australia four years ago. This time both South Africa and the Netherlands beat the U.S. The American men’s basketball squad had never lost in the Olympics since we started sending NBA players in 1992, and it had held an overall Olympic record of 109-2 until Sunday.

Both Phelps and the men’s team have a lot more chances in Greece. Phelps will swim six more events. I think he’s going to lose again tonight in the 200-meter freestyle against Australia’s Ian Thorpe, but will win several more golds (so far Phelps has the only gold medal the U.S. has won).

The U.S. men’s basketball loss came in round-robin play. America will still almost certainly advance to the final eight (four of the six teams in the U.S. bracket will).

But Sunday’s red, white and extremely blue day showed again that America can’t just show up and win anything at the Olympics anymore.

Puerto Rico? The U.S. had creamed the Puerto Ricans by 25 points only two weeks ago, and Allen Iverson and LeBron James didn’t even play in that game due to tardiness to a team meeting.

This time, with a full roster, the U.S. went 3 for 24 from three-point range and got blistered.

When will the U.S. realize that in an international game it’s wise to take several players who would normally not make an all-star squad but can shoot from 25 feet against zones all day long? Larry Brown’s team is way too heavy on mid-sized slashing players.

The 4x100 swim relay? Although less well-known than the basketball team, this is an event that America always ruled. For decades, it wasn’t even close — the American men would win by half a pool length or more.

Not this time. The U.S. was undone by a horrible first leg by Ian Crocker, whose 50.05-second time in his 100 meters was the slowest of the 32 swimmers who competed in the final. Crocker has had a sore throat and a cold for three days, but c’mon. Get him out of the event if he’s not healthy. Several other swimmers were available, including Gary Hall Jr. (who then didn’t even show up to support his teammates after not being picked to swim the final).

Crocker’s time meant everyone else would have to swim unbelievable times for a gold medal, and that didn’t happen.

Puerto Rico clobbered the U.S. by shooting 56.4 percent from the field, as the NBA defense often seemed lazy and out-of-touch. Puerto Rico’s 6-1 guard Carlos Arroyo had 24 points, often driving inside with impunity. Eddie Casiano, a 6-4 swingman, hit all four of his three-pointers and scored 18 points.

Phelps still has an outside shot at the $1 million bonus promised by Speedo if he wins all the rest of his events and grabs seven gold medals to tie Mark Spitz’s record.

But that’s not likely. That would require total dominance. And, as Sunday showed, America isn’t totally dominant in much of anything at the Olympics anymore.