As the NFL kicks into the regular season and the first 9/11 anniversary looms, something significant occurred in the sports world that should be addressed: the world has caught up in basketball. At the World Championships in Indianapolis, Team USA lost to Argentina 88-80 and Yugoslavia 81-78, becoming the first American team to lose with NBA players. Team USA went from 58-0 to 58-2 in the span of two games on its own soil.

Back in 1988, when Americans lost in the Olympics and did not win the gold medal with its college players, we as a nation bemoaned that it wasn't fair because we didn't get to use our best professional players, only our best amateurs. We said that other nations got to use professional players, so we should be able to use our NBA players to stomp on everyone. Since the Olympics are about money more than competition, the IOC agreed that amateur status no longer mattered to play basketball in the Olympics. Along came Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Patrick Ewing to step on all the competition in 1992. Coach Chuck Daly never called a time out during any of the games as Team USA coasted to the gold medal. According to Americans, everything was right again in basketball.

Ten years later, the world has caught up again to the Americans in basketball. With the influx of foreign players in the NBA, international teams can field a group stocked with NBA all-stars. Now, nations with financial and political turmoil like Argentina and war-torn Yugoslavia can muster quality games to beat the Americans. No more whining, no more excuses; the world has caught up. It may be a coincidence, but remember that this happened while Bush Jr. was in office trying to bully his way into another war.

What does this mean on the grand scale of things? Well, it means that if given the chance, the nations all around the world can do things just as well as the United States. It is human nature to want to compete. That's why the 'come-together love-in' talk never works well in the long run for international relations. Countries like to measure themselves against each other. Basketball is a game Americans created, and we gave it to the world. All you need is a ball and a basket to play.

This competition should be seen as a good thing. People get tired of the same old story all the time. 58 games over ten years, and Team USA never lost. We began to take it for granted. Only a couple thousand people were in the stands in Indianapolis to witness the historic defeats. Far short of the fifteen or twenty thousand that attend a regular season game of the Indiana Pacers. Nobody cared about international basketball competition with NBA players. USA would win again like we always do until the end of time.

Time has ended, and Team USA is not first, second, third, fourth or even fifth. It lost to Spain this afternoon, thus finishing sixth. Now Team USA is just another team in the competition, and they have a chance of winning or losing as much as anyone.

So as you go into your 9/11 work week, wondering how to properly memorialize the day of terror, here is a suggestion: think about the world and your place in it. Don't take for granted that you live in the greatest nation in the world. Don't stress yourself out wondering how someone could do such a thing to us. Realize that the world is only against us when we are against them, and in the long run, we are no better than anyone else.

Argentina, Yugoslavia and Spain can beat us in basketball, Cuba can beat us in baseball, Germany can beat us in soccer, and it's all okay. Every nation has talented individuals. I would wager that even Iraq has some impressive folks living there. Through competition, we realize another nation's potential. Through war, we ruin any and all chance of this potential.

At least in one way, the world has finally caught up, and the sky did not fall out of the sky. The United States lost in basketball. Three times. Now, the players realize they have to work even harder if they want to be the best. That's exactly how it should be.

Chris Jungle has caught up to George Will in writing pointless sports columns.