Kiszla: The secret of Strong Faces and how it has awakened fight in Team USA to win Olympic basketball gold – The Denver Post

SAITAMA, Japan — After The Team Not Allowed to Lose rolled to the Olympic gold medal game by blowing out Australia 97-78, coach Gregg Popovich sat down in front of a microphone Thursday and tried his polite best not to be an Ugly American.

For nearly 13 minutes of his postgame news conference, Pop was pitch perfect. He was in turns funny, humble and insightful, at one point saluting Samantha Dutton for allowing her boyfriend, Khris Middleton, to join a basketball junket to Japan immediately after the birth of a baby.

After beguiling the media, however, Popovich slipped back into a more familiar role at the very end of his chat with the media. It happened when an unsuspecting journalist from Slovenia got up and asked the infamously irascible coach if he would rather face wunderkind Luka Doncic or feisty France in the championship game.

Rut-roh.

“You really think I’m going to answer that question? How long have you been a reporter?” retorted Popovich, sharpening his tongue with the feigned indignation that has wilted too many ink-stained wretches and talking heads to count. “You must be talking to some dumb coaches. I wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole. You’ve got to be kidding.”

Tirade finished and mission accomplished, Coach Pop walked off the dais with a self-satisfied smirk, but not before flashing two thumbs up to his new bestie in the Fourth Estate from Slovenia.

Now 72 years old, Popovich has been making reporters feel 3 inches tall for nearly a generation. It’s a tried-and-true act. Reminds me a little of Wayne Newton singing “Danke Schoen.” Makes me chuckle every time.

Pop loves to play bad cop. There’s a method to his madness.

In this particular case, as the lead coach on the bench for The Team Never Allowed To Lose, he uses Ugly American rants as a sponge to soak up the criticism directed at his NBA superstars whenever they show a hint of vulnerability. He last did it when the Americans opened the Olympic tournament with a shocking 83-76 loss to Evan Fournier and France.

I’m so old I remember when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird went to the Olympics on a busman’s holiday, using teams from around the globe as basketball props. Well, times have changed. No dynasty lives forever. As the game has grown, so has the challenge for The Team Never Allowed to Lose.

In the semifinals, The Team Never Allowed to Lose fell behind Australia 41-26 midway through the second quarter before facing the music of Coach Pop during a timeout. “They sliced and diced us and we looked like we never played together before at the defensive end of the court, which in some respects is true, I guess,” he said.

Give the grizzled coach credit for building the chemistry of a roster filled with stars not accustomed to suppressing the desire to be the hero.

“We just tell the truth,” said Popovich, applauding this U.S. squad for taking criticism to heart rather than being slaves to ego.

“I give them credit for understanding the game as well as they do and being able to accept the truth. With some players, you can tell them something and they don’t buy it, because they can’t handle certain types of criticism. These guys want the truth.”

What turned the momentum around against Australia, other than the realization that defending the paint might be a good idea? Two words: Kevin Durant.

“We all know who he is. Probably the best player in the world,” U.S. guard Damian Lillard said. “You get in a setting like this and with that height and athleticism, the ability to shoot and handle, nobody can stop him.”

During a stretch of eight minutes and 36 seconds on both sides of halftime, the USA outscored Australia 26-4, with Durant fueling the blitz with 17 points.

For years, the motto of The Team Never Allowed to Lose has been: Strong Faces.

What does that mean? Never complain. Never let ’em see you sweat. Never make excuses.

When the going got tough early against the scrappy Aussies, led by Utah Jazz sharpshooter Joe Ingles and NBA veteran Patty Mills, the Americans refused to panic.

Durant explained: “There were a lot of guys on this team that had straight faces and were ready to play when we were down 15. ‘Strong Faces‘ is what Pop said. They came out and hit us with a nice haymaker, and we were able to get back up.”

Strong Faces are required of American basketball players held to a standard and open to criticism that no other member of the U.S. Olympic delegation has to endure after a poor performance.

“I copied that from Coach K,” said Popovich, referencing a term coined by Mike Krzyzewski, longtime coach of the U.S. national team. “It’s basically: Play on to the next play. You don’t react to a teammate’s turnover or the referee’s call. The fact that you miss a shot? Nobody cares. You don’t have that right. You’re responsible to your team to move on to the next play. And he called it Strong Faces.”

Since Magic and Bird played like a dream way back in 1992, the Americans own a 57-4 record on the court at the Summer Games. But is near-perfection good enough for you, me or any other second-guessers on the sofa back in the USA?

Not really. That’s why Strong Faces are standard issue with every red, white and blue uniform.

The Team Never Allowed To Lose is now four quarters away from achieving what everyone in America always counts on them to do:

Bring home the gold.

Don’t mess it up, fellas.

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