NO LONGER IS GOLD TAKEN FOR GRANTED BROWN'S TEAM WILL RUN INTO CHALLENGES.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

The question would have been laughable just a few years ago, the mere thought as absurd as the Lakers even considering trading Shaquille O'Neal.

And the laughable question - could a United States Olympic basketball team consisting of NBA stars fail to win the gold medal?

No one's laughing now.

Not after the World Championship debacle two years ago, when the Paul Pierce-led U.S. team finished an embarrassing sixth after losing to Argentina and Yugoslavia.

And not after so many NBA superstars - O'Neal, Jermaine O'Neal, Mike Bibby, Tracy McGrady and Ben Wallace among them - declined invitations to play in the Athens Games for various reasons, leaving the job of upholding the red, white and blue's basketball dominance to the inexperienced hands of up-and-comers LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Emeka Okafor.

This group didn't give U.S. fans much hope after being routed by Italy and beating Germany, which didn't even qualify for the Olympics, on a last-second 3-pointer in exhibitions leading to the Athens Games.

``We are not going to be an all-star team,'' warned U.S. coach Larry Brown, fresh off leading the Detroit Pistons to an upset of the Lakers in the NBA Finals. ``But we have terrific talent and our challenge is to play the right way every single night and show the world we have the best players and to uphold the great tradition that we have in Olympic competition.''

The travesty in Indianapolis at the World Championship showed just how much the rest of the world has grown in basketball and just how the gap between the U.S. and everybody else has closed.

In fact, the disappointing finish meant the USA had to rush together a team of NBA players to play in the FIBA Americas Olympic Qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico last year just to secure a berth in the Athens Games.

But the fact that the U.S. had to earn its way via a qualifying tournament was embarrassing enough. And that team, coached by Brown, is a distant memory. Only Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan and Richard Jefferson return for Athens.

Now comes the 2004 Dream Team, and for the first time since NBA players started participating on the world stage, there is real reason to be concerned about the Americans' ability to win a gold medal.

Defending world champion Serbia-Montenegro - led by NBA players Predrag Drobnjak, Vladimir Radmanovic, Marko Jaric and Darko Milicic - is just one of three teams with a chance to beat the U.S. Lithuania, which lost 85-83 to the U.S. in the 2000 Games, and Manu Ginobili's Argentina team also have the talent to make a run at gold.

``The competition is really high,'' Anthony said.

This isn't your older brother's USA Dream Team, to be sure. With superstars declining invitations and Kobe Bryant tied up in his legal mess, a young, internationally inexperienced team is being counted on to carry the torch.

``I don't really think we have a lot of pressure,'' said Anthony, who was the runner-up to James in the NBA Rookie of the Year voting last season. ``All we can do is go over there and play basketball. We are professionals. We watch each other every day on TV and at night we play against each other. We know what we can do when we get on the court together. It's just a matter of us gelling and getting focused as a team.''

The youth of Anthony, Wade, James and Okafor - the College Player of the Year from Connecticut - is the rule rather than the exception on this version of the Dream Team. Duncan is the only member of the team with an NBA title and Iverson the only player to have won a league scoring title.

The rest of the players - Carlos Boozer, Jefferson, Stephon Marbury, Shawn Marion, Lamar Odom and Amare Stoudemire, are second-tier NBA stars barely scratching the surface of their professional careers.

They do have one thing working in their favor. As opposed to some of the past national teams, some of which had players who did not jump at the opportunity, this group seems genuinely happy to represent the United States.

``I'm very excited and I'm honored to be part of the Olympic team,'' Wade said. ``And I'm looking forward to going out there and winning a gold medal.''

Brown appreciates the enthusiasm.

``These guys are all excited to be here,'' Brown said. ``A lot of the young players that we are talking about have performed extremely well in the best league in the world. I'm more excited about coaching this team than probably a real all-star team. They are the future of our league and the future of USA basketball.''

Vincent Bonsignore, [phone]

vincent.bonsignore(at)dailynews.com

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Shawn Marion and the U.S. men's basketball team soared to an 80-68 win over Turkey on Tuesday in its final exhibition game before the Olympics.

Osman Orsal/Associated Press

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