According to this story from the AP, fans in Japan are embracing and encouraging the U.S. team at the World Championship of Basketball. Dwyane Wade noticed, says the story, that as opposed to the '04 Olympics in Athens, there has been "no booing.''

Of course not. He'd have to be back here in the States to hear the booing. Or, in lieu of anything to boo about, the silence in the face of the team's unbeaten march to the semifinals (thanks to this morning's win over Germany). Or, in desperation for something to criticize, the occasional rip job when the games are not enough of a blowout, or even when it's too much of a blowout.

This phenomenon was detailed nicely in a recent column in the Orlando Sentinel; Jemele Hill wondered why and how recent U.S. basketballers got the distinction as the only teams representing this country that its citizens root for to lose. It's not a new phenomenon, either; contrary to the retroactive praise regularly heaped on the first Dream Team, most people here fervently wished for some country to do to that group what the U.S. hockey team did to the Soviets in 1980. Punish it for its perceived arrogance, that is.

Nowadays, lots of people (including, sadly, plenty in this business) take the cheap route and compare the current team to the much-despised '04 group. (Fine example in this New York Times column last week.) Others pounce on any window of opportunity to berate the team with outdated criticisms that have no relevance to this group. When the Americans beat Italy by only nine after trailing in the first half, one national radio host - who shall remain nameless, but whose initials are C.C. - spent the better part of a half-hour dusting off the same old, decade-old arguments: can't shoot, can't pass, don't play defense, don't play as a team, have poor fundamentals, are all selfish - the usual euphemisms for what most of the relentlessly critical don't want to say out loud.

It should be the new U.S. team motto: Damned if we do, damned if we don't. But, at least the Japanese appreciate them.