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Ahh, global financial meltdown ... you are so sad. Credit may be in short supply, but that's nothing compared to the lack of inspiration.

Consider this passage from a Nick Paumgarten article in the current New Yorker, quoting an anonymous banker:

"In the past, in difficult times, Americans just worked harder," he went on. "But there aren't enough hours in the day, or enough incentives to work harder, and there's nothing to work on. People, in the end, will find a way to work their way out of it. They'll pay down their debts. They'll have to. And then everyone will get bored with doom and gloom and dip their toes in again.

"Still, this one is so bad. After 9/11, it took people only six months to get stupid. This time, it will take ten years for people to become stupid again." He continued, "America will just be less influential. It will be poorer. It may be the end of the empire."

As I read that dire sentiment, it rang a bell. ... The United States climbing down from its perch.

Granted, it's not nearly as meaningful to people losing their jobs, or homes, but if indeed the end of the empire is what's happening in international business, it is also what has happened in international basketball. A killer win streak from the beginning of time (or, when NBA players first played in international competition, in 1992) to 2000, followed by humiliation after humiliation from 2002 to 2006. 

Hey, lead dog: Welcome to life in the pack, where everybody gets nipped.

But Team USA's 2008 Olympic gold was meaningful. (Can you imagine if they had lost? The state of American basketball would be bleak.) Here's my favorite part: Despite what you may have been told watching TV, that victory was not simply a story of overwhelming American firepower. It was firepower plus healthy doses of American selflessness, hustle, grit, strategy, commitment, teamwork, coaching, vision, and all the other things that go into getting the most out of people.

Team USA has gone from untested, to tested, to acing the test.

I like that story. And I wonder if it might be a chance for sports to do what they are supposed to do: Be the departure from your real life that inspires you, just a little, in your real life. 

(Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)