If anyone knows how difficult it is to win a major championship, it's Argentine star Manu Ginobili. He is the only basketball player ever to win a Euroleague championship, an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal.

The club titles are no doubt sweet for Ginobili, but it's that gold medal his team won in Athens that will be on everyone's mind when world No 2 Argentina comes to Beijing this summer.

As the only country besides the US to win gold in the last 16 years and with a roster brimming with NBA talent, expectations will be high for the Argentines. But Ginobili knows defending the gold won't be easy.

"People don't realize how difficult it is to win gold at the Olympics," Ginobili told the website of FIBA, world basketball's governing body. "It happened once and it may happen again, but it's complicatedIt's far more realistic that it will not happen but that we come close."

Ginobili's realism may be well founded. Argentina is a perfect example of how competitive international basketball has become in the past decade. Spain, Lithuania and Russia are all legitimate threats to dethrone Argentina. And of course there's the US, a team determined to prove its Athens bronze was just a temporary setback.

Even more troubling for Argentina are the recent retirements of some key players from its Athens Games team. March saw the departure of Ginobili's childhood friend and long-time teammate, point guard Pepe Sanchez. The 31-year-old Sanchez, a key playmaker for AXA FC Barcelona, chose to call it quits to focus more on his club duties. A few weeks later, another player in the prime of his career, Walter Hermann of the NBA's Detroit Pistons, decided to retire from the national side to spend more time with his family.

But South American coach Sergio Hernandez still has plenty of weapons at his disposal. Ginobili, winner of the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award, is coming off his best season as a pro and is at the top of his game. His San Antonio Spurs teammate, Fabricio Oberto, Argentina's elder statesman who has manned the middle for his nation since 1995, will also be returning.

Luis Scola, who was just named to the NBA's all-rookie first team, will be another crucial part of Argentina's offense. Coming into the league this year, people knew Scola could play. But few knew just how good he could be until his Houston Rockets teammate Yao Ming went down with a season-ending injury. Scola filled Yao's oversized shoes admirably. His gritty play helped Houston to a whopping 22-game winning streak, as the NBA world learned Ginobili was not the only Argentine who could score in bunches.

Argentina's system of developing national talent - which also produced sharpshooting Toronto Raptors wingman Carlos Delfino and Chicago Bulls slashing forward Andres Nocioni, both of whom will be in Beijing - is responsible for the team's depth.

Horacio Muratore, president of Argentina's basketball confederation, says it is this focus on development that will help Argentina defend its gold.

"To be the ultimate Olympic champion is a great responsibility for us," he said through a translator. "Our extraordinary system has allowed us to reach the heights of competition."

(China Daily 05/16/2008 page8)