It would not be an exaggeration to say the USA were humiliated at these World Championships, and what makes matters worse is the fact that it happened on their home turf.

Many doubt that there is a team more talented than the one USA Basketball put out there in this tournament, so why did they lose?  If you ask head coach George Karl the answer is easy; the money and greed of today's NBA stars.

"The money and greed of the NBA. Does that have an effect on our competitive nature? Yeah, you can write that," Karl said.

Team USA went into this tournament without the likes of Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Tracy McGrady, Chris Webber, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Vince Carter to name a few - all of which would at least be chances to start for an All-World team.  Reasons that each player missed vary, but to some degree greed and un-patriotic attitudes certainly played a part.  After all, if you earn $10 million a season why risk injury at doing something as pointless as beating up on some foreigners?

Team USA received their wake up call when their NBA players lost for the first time ever at international level, but suprisingly not even this woke them.  The nightmare continued as the team then lost to gold-medalists Yugoslavia and Spain, making it three losses from four games, only a 10 point win over lowly Puerto Rico breaking the streak.  Team USA finished sixth, their worst ever positioning by a U.S. men's team at a major international competition.

"I still think we're the best, the model for the world, but people are catching up. They beat us, and they beat us in our own country. We have to tip our hat to them," said Karl.