Forlorn in the USA / Men’s basketball team is routed by Puerto Rico, its first Olympic loss with pros, and Phelps’ bid for eight gold medals ends with a third-place finish in relay

Angry at constant exploitation, emboldened by new worlds, this country’s greatest sports creation did the inevitable Sunday.

It turned on us.

What James Naismith so beautifully built, the culture of slam dunks and shoe contracts and selfishness shamelessly reconstructed until, finally, Sunday night, the sport of basketball fought back.

Call it Air Disgrace.

In front of thousands of jeering, dancing fans in a cramped seaside arena, the monster turned on the master. The U.S. lost its first Olympic men’s basketball game with professionals, and only its third in 68 years, for one horrific reason.

We have forgotten how to play our game.

Puerto Rico scored 92 points with passing and defense and purpose.

The U.S. scored 73 points with bricks and bombast.

With two NBA players, Puerto Rico made more than half of its shots, grabbed seemingly every loose ball, and scored 28 points in the second quarter.

With a dozen NBA players, the U.S. made barely one-third of its shots, was pushed from here to Thessaloniki, and scored seven points in that second quarter.

Ten minutes. Seven points. With two former NBA MVPs in uniform. Think about it.

Walking off the floor, Carlos Arroyo grabbed the front of his Puerto Rico jersey and shook it at the roaring crowd.

“They have the best players in the world,” Arroyo said. “But basketball is about a team.”

Walking off the same floor, Carmelo Anthony was apparently so ashamed, he removed his USA jersey altogether.

“I’m humiliated,” said Coach Larry Brown, speaking not only for himself, but surely for any of the millions of Americans who have ever played one-on-one against the garage or banked in a three-pointer off a barn.

Hoosiers? This was more like Who?siers, the story of a small-town sport whose fundamentals and values have become impaled on a picket fence.

“I guess the word right now is, shocked,” said Elias Ayuso, the former USC guard who scored 15 points for Puerto Rico.

A more appropriate phrase would be, of course.

Four years ago, the U.S. team was one missed three-pointer from losing in the Olympics to Lithuania.

Two summers ago, a professional U.S. team lost three home games at the world championships in Indianapolis.

Then, this summer, the Lakers lost to the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals.

Sense a trend here?

It’s not only about the rest of the world catching up to the U.S. in basketball, although dozens of NBA players now hail from foreign countries.

It’s about fundamentals catching up with flash.

“Those guys play basketball the way the game is supposed to be played,” Allen Iverson said of Puerto Rico. “They think the game out.”

He shook his head and added, “They don’t use just their athletic ability. They have that Karl Malone-John Stockton kind of thing.

“It’s good for kids to see a game like this.”

What Iverson lacked in shooting accuracy, he made up for in honesty.

Some folks, of course, will cry that because seven of the original nine Olympic selections turned down the invitation, the U.S. didn’t send its best team. Please.

So the likes of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal and Kevin Garnett stayed home. So what? Are they really obliged to serve their country in any manner other than paying taxes and obeying the laws?

Those who stayed home should not be ridiculed any more than a citizen who does not choose to serve his country for free during his summer vacation.

Others will claim that, having played together less than a month, the U.S. has trouble competing against teams that have played together four years. Again, please.

“If any team can pull it together in two weeks, it’s the United States,” said Arroyo, who scored 24 points.

Indeed, look who showed up.

Iverson, but he missed nine of 10 three-point shots. Tim Duncan, but he had seven turnovers.

Richard Jefferson, although he missed 13 of 16 shots. And that fabulous kid duo of LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, well, it combined for one basket, one assist and two turnovers.

The best available individual players were here. The problem is that those players are not necessarily the best team or championship players -- only Duncan has won an NBA title -- and shame on USA Basketball for not knowing that.

Where was the great shooter to foil the international zones?

“Usually you have a shooter on your team in these kind of events, but they don’t have one,” Ayuso said. “They couldn’t single anybody out to beat our zone.”

Where was the great interior defender to help protect Duncan?

“They were a little mismatched in there,” Puerto Rico’s Daniel Santiago said.

This being Larry Brown’s team, where were more of those Detroit Pistons?

They were lost, that’s where. They were back in the U.S., where ESPN highlights tell us that basketball is an individual sport, and Nike ads tell us that it’s a first-person sport, and did anybody ever get a guaranteed contract for a bounce pass?

Several times late in Sunday’s game, the U.S. closed the gap and seemed to gain momentum.

Then Rolando Hourruitiner would hit a bank shot -- a bank shot. Or Jefferson or Iverson would lose the ball. Or Dwyane Wade would make a ridiculous high(low?)light-video drive that would result in a silly miss.

In the end, three wild U.S. bombs were countered with three Puerto Rico layups.

In the end, Shawn Marion missed a bad shot and fans were actually laughing, then singing, then waving flags from all over the world.

Our creation. Our destruction. Our own high-flying, trash-talking, look-at-me fault.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

AT A LOSS

The first two times the U.S. men lost Olympic basketball games:

1972 -- SOVIET UNION, 51-50

* In a controversial game, the U.S. lost for the first time in Olympic competition, ending a string of seven gold medals. The U.S. led by one with three seconds left. The Soviets twice put the ball in play and failed to score, but officiating foulups enabled them to restart the clock each time. On the third possession, the Soviets converted a full-court pass and a controversy was born.

1988 -- SOVIET UNION, 82-76

* The game was the first Olympic matchup between the superpowers since 1972 and the last in which the U.S. was represented by collegiate players.

*

Closing In

The competition has been more difficult for the United States with each Summer Olympics since professional basketball players began to compete in 1992. Results and average point differential:

*--* YEAR OLYMPIC SITE W-L DIFF. 1992 BARCELONA, SPAIN 8-0 +43.8 1996 ATLANTA 8-0 +31.8 2000 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 8-0 +21.4 2004 ATHENS 0-1 -19.0

*--*

Better Days

The United States had beaten Puerto Rico five times in the last 13 months:

*--* When Competition Where Score Aug. 28, 2003 FIBA America Olympic San Juan, Puerto Rico 91-65 qualifying tournament Aug. 30, 2003 FIBA America Olympic San Juan, Puerto Rico 87-71 qualifying tournament Aug. 17, 2004 Exhibition New York 101-74 July 29, 2004 Scrimmage Jacksonville, Fla. 102-76 July 30, 2004 Exhibition Jacksonville, Fla. 96-71

*--*