Halftime Hype

The United States so-called "B-Team" won the FIBA World Basketball Championship in a 81-64 over Turkey in Istanbul on Sunday. The win gave the U.S. a berth in the 2012 London Olympics. With instant offense from the Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant, as well as the veteran leadership of the Denver Nuggets' Chauncey Billups and the Los Angeles Lakers' Lamar Odom, the United States won its first World Basketball Championship in 16 years.

Without intimidating height and any star-studded members of the 2008 Olympics Gold Medal team, many were skeptic of the United States' potential, hence the term "B-Team." In fact, only three players on the U.S. team had previously played for the national team.

The young faces, however, proved to be a nice breath of fresh air. The United States went undefeated, with only one game that came down to the wire, a 70-68 victory over Brazil. After that narrow win, Durant would go on to say, "We need this game. The atmosphere was great, Brazil did a great job, they put pressure on us. It's a learning experience for us. It's the game we needed."

From that point on, it was mostly easy sailing for the U.S. The championship game was no different. After trailing 17-14, Team USA gained control of the game. Nevertheless, Turkey is to be commended for going so far as to earn its first FIBA World Championship medal. During the past few weeks, fans rallied around the host country and the team impressed many.

USA Head Coach Mike Kryzewski praised Turkey's run, saying "I want to congratulate the Turkish team for a truly perfect tournament. They epitomized what a team should be and we had to be at our very best to beat them. It was a terrific tournament and [Istanbul was] a truly wonderful city. I’ve never seen a country celebrate a team better than Turkey. It created a great atmosphere for the tournament."

Despite being only 21 years old, Durant was undoubtedly the United States' leader. Durant, who led the NBA in scoring last season, averaged 22.8 points throughout the tournament. Additionally, he set the record for most points in a FIBA World Championship game by an American by scoring 38 points in the United States' 89-74 victory over Lithuania in the semifinal.

Odom, one of the elder statesmen on Team USA, now has extra bragging rights since he has earned a NBA and FIBA championship - in the same year. In a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times' Broderick Turner, Odom shared his thoughts on such an honor: "The thought of being a world champion twice in one year is cool, you know? I could brag to Kobe [Bryant] and tell him this is something he doesn't got."

After winning the gold medal, the "B-Team" nickname is no longer symbolic of inferiority, but is representative of "best team."