Former Brazilian basketball great Oscar Schmidt criticized NBA stars Nene and Leandro Barbosa after Brazil's poor performance at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Las Vegas.

Brazil lost to Argentina 91-80 Saturday in the semifinals of the FIBA Americas qualifier and failed to earn one of the two berths for next year's Beijing Olympics up for grabs at the tournament.

"Nene should have worked harder," Oscar told the local SporTV channel Saturday. "He stayed around in Rio during the Pan American Games only to gain weight. The same thing happened with Leandro."

Nene, of the Denver Nuggets, and Barbosa, of the Phoenix Suns, skipped Brazil's winning campaign at the PanAm Games in July.