I would say the boxing in the US is still on equal ground.
Pound for Pound in most peoples eyes still have 5 americans in the top 10.
Mayweather considered #1 by most.
Hopkins is still top 10.
As are Chad Dawson and Paul Williams.
It is hard to ignore Shane Mosley either.
It seems to me the media (ESPN) lose interest the second a European wins the belt, and they start focusing their attention on the lighter weights. I get tired of hearing heavyweight division is dead because they don't want to cover it.
Basketball is not even close. Yes Team USA has choked but don't think for a second the world is better.
It is still better overall. Slightly. The best basketball game I saw in the last few years was some international competition in the middle of the night, between USA and Spain. The ESPN sports guy mentioned this in a column, and he was completely right - it was an incredible game and no one saw it.
Spain, with a backup teenage guard, came within a Dwayne Wade 3-pointer of upsetting the very best Americans. Just one game, yes, but it is quite clear that the US is no longer in a class of its own - overall.
I wasn't talking about overall, though, I was referring to skills. Pau Gasol is probably the best example, Nowitzski is second best. It's not that America doesn't produce players who in some sense are as good as these or better, but that the skills that they display you NEVER see from Americans. You never see Americans who shoot with the technical ability of Nowitski or pass with the ability of Gasol. Without checking, I would guess the average Euro NBA player has higher FT and 3-point percentages, and I'm sure they're better passers. Even their bums, their stiffs like that Ilgauskas for Cleveland - just call to your mind him passing or shooting - America does not produce people with that level of technical skill. And that has to be due to the general culture or training methods because you see it across sports. It's even true in baseball. If you watch the Asian teams play in the World Baseball Classic, you see the same thing: that they play technically correctly a higher percentage of the time than Americans do. Americans are unique in valuing noise and glitter (style and presentation) over skill. That's what I see, and I think it is backed by the evidence.
