The NBA saved our Olympic basketball program after screwing it up.

ESPN has a great special feature running now called Basketball, A Love Story, with an interesting timeline into the growth of the game through its rise to popularity over the last 50 years. I was watching the part that covered how Mike Krzyzewski and Jerry Colangelo saved USA Basketball after the 2004 loss to Argentina in the gold medal game in Athens.

Retired NBA Commissioner David Stern is highlighted for hiring Colangelo, the former GM of the Phoenix Suns, after the team coached by UNC alum Larry Brown failed to defend America’s gold medal since the Russians stole it in the controversial 1972 games in Munich.

What it doesn’t mention was Brown’s team of NBA all-stars and veterans fell apart after qualifying for pool play in the 2003 Olympic Trials in San Juan by going undefeated and beating the same Argentina team twice. Roy Williams was one of Brown’s assistants, and he was witness to the team disintegrating after that.

With reasons ranging from a fear of terrorism two years after 9/11 to players’ wives and girlfriends getting pregnant, nine of the 12 members of that qualifying team decided not to go to Greece for the 2004 games. The average age of the qualifying team was 25-plus, and after the NBA had a heavy hand in picking their inferior replacements, the players averaged 23 years old and it was like sending America’s fourth string over there.

Stern forced teenagers LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony onto the squad to give them publicity for their NBA careers, and both were part of the bad chemistry that splintered the team, which had no time to practice since the U.S. had already qualified and did not get to play any preliminary games. After returning with bronze medal, the revamping started.

Stern asked Colangelo to take over USA basketball, and Colangelo accepted with certain conditions. One, he had total authority to pick the players and coaches and, two, the NBA would finance USA Basketball with an unlimited budget. That led to a meeting of 30 stalwarts of the game in Chicago, where Dean Smith recommended Krzyzewski as the Olympic coach. All the top pros joined Team USA, which now had first-class travel and plenty of money to give them whatever they needed.

Most importantly, Stern stayed out of it.