The objective was to win the gold medal. That objective was carried out, and for the United States, it was the first time any country won back-to-back gold medals in men's and women's basketball.

The women were outstanding and credit shold go to Pat Summit, Ann Meyers and Cheryl Miller, all of whom set the groundwork for American women to become the dominating force in women's basketball. Before their time, the Soviet Union ruled and there were those who believed the United States would never catch them. A truly outstanding performance against Australia -- the second best team in the world -- capped a brilliant run for the gold. A special tribute goes to Theresa Edwards, our five-time Olympian. Edwards has to be a lock as a future Hall of Famer with four golds and one bronze. She personified the hard work, dedication, and team spirit which established this 2000 gold medal team as possibly our greatest ever.

Nikki McCray and the U.S. women have an outstanding run to gold in Sydney.(AP)

The women had the answers while the men only created questions. Yes the men won a gold medal, but what did it mean? I have never been more off target on a team and its abilities compared to its opponent than I was with this year's men's Olympic squad. Before the games began, I felt with this squad's youth and quickness, it would be very difficult for the foreign teams to play against them; particularly when the defensive strategy was full-court pressure. I also felt comments by international press, opposing coaches and players, that questioned the 'Dream Team' status of these players, would provide great motivational incentive to a group of players who -- with the exception of Gary Payton -- had never won an Olympic gold medal, NCAA championship or NBA title. How wrong I was. The defensive pressure was totally ineffective. The theories -- NBA players don't press, the players don't like to press, the players didn't know how to press -- you pick the reason. The point is the defense never created a problem for the opposition, and thus the team had to settle for the tempo of its opponent.

From a motivational standpoint, I believe this is a group of good young guys -- guys you would like to know and have live next door, but on the court, some seem more interested in taunting an opponent who is outplaying him. One of the reasons is because they received very little support from the crowd and journalists who saw the games. When all was said and done, their opponents seemed both amused at their arrogance and unimpressed with their ability. In the minds of many, these were just 12 overpaid NBA superstars.

The results of the games included two close encounters with Lithuania and five of the smallest victory margins by NBA players in Olympic history. This should show those in charge of the future of basketball in the USA that we are not moving the right direction. Case in point: There was not one player on any other Olympic team who would have been selected to the American team.

Lithuania's top player, Sarunas Jasikevicious, who lit up the U.S. for 27 points in one game, and Darius Sengaila, who scored 16 points and had eight rebounds in the other. Both played college basketball in the United States with Jasikevicious in Maryland, where he never made an All-Conference team and wasn't drafted by the NBA and Sengaila, a rising senior at Wake Forest, who has yet to make his first All-ACC team.

The sixth man on France's silver medal team was Crawford Palmer, who originally attended Duke, where he never earned a start before transferring to Dartmouth. It should also be noted that top stars like Vlade Divac, Lithuania's Arvydas Sabonis, France's Jerome Moiso, and Canada's Rick Fox, never played for their respective countries. Thus, I feel this was the weakest international field I have seen in the five Olympics that I have observed -- an opinion seconded by many including gold medal legend and Hall of Famer Alexander Gomelski of Russia.

It is time for David Stern to recognize that he has been a marketing genius and godsend to NBA players and owners in regard to finances, but has not been a good shepherd for the game. I point to Stern because USA basketball, the governing body of international basketball in the United States, is now nothing more than another marketing division of the NBA. The rest of the world has not caught up to us on the court and we, for many reasons have gone backward.

Congratulations on the gold medals, but. it's time to go back to the drawing boards.

An suggestion for the future: Eliminate the conception of 12 NBA All-Stars. It is an impossible situation for the coaching staff as their main concern is the distribution of playing time. What an ineffective way to produce a free-flowing game. My suggestion is for five NBA players chosen to work together by the coaching staff, five top college players who have impacted the college game as either gradating or rising seniors and two veterans to serve as captains, who have proven to be great players and ambassadors of the game who deserve the honor. An example for these Olympics would have been Jeff Hornacek from the Utah Jazz who retired this year.

Such a lineup would give the coaches the best first team in the competition, the best second team and an opportunity to put together a team and not just a group of all-stars. Basketball, for those who haven't noticed lately, is still a team sport. Just ask the fans in Sydney who would rather applaud the play of the bronze medalists from Lithuania than the gold medallists from America.

A few side notes for me: Sydney proved to be the greatest sporting event ever for eliminating long-term sport stereotypes. Anthony Ervin, an African-American swimmer wins a swimming gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle, a white Greek man, Konstantinos Kenteris, wins a gold medal in the 200-meter sprint, a black woman, Venus Williams, wins two golds in tennis.

Lithuania proved to be the most entertaining basketball team and didn't have one black player. An Aboriginal woman and national treasure, Cathy Freeman, wins gold, lights the torch and touches the hearts of her country. A legally blind woman, Marla Runyan, makes the 1500-meter finals. All are great stories and an example of the future of sports and kids who dream of participating.

Second, aren't we all tired of the actions of American athletes such as our 4x100 men's gold relay team? Four guys who totally trashed the spirit of Olympic sportsmanship. I was sitting fifty feet from the finish line that evening and watched the incomparable Marion Jones finish for a bronze medal in the 4x100 women's competition. Her first move after crossing the finish lines was to congratulate the winners and look back up the track to locate her disappointed teammates, put her arm around them and leave the track with a smile. She is a classy woman. A few minutes later, Maurice Green crossed the same finish line with the gold. His first move was to find a friend with the American flag, drape it around his shoulder and run to the cameraman -- an example of class and no class. But all in all, as Juan Antonio Samaranch said, it was the greatest Olympics ever and who am I to disagree?