CLEVELAND -- If the rest of the free and not-so-free world thought that Jermaine O'Neal was the best America had to offer, we now present you with … Kobe Bryant.

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Help is on the way. USA Basketball could not even reach the Final Four of the World Championships last summer, but, fortunately for us, it made Kobe a little angry.

"Yep, it's tough to watch USA go down the way they did," Bryant said Tuesday night.

So, he all but says he's playing in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

"I'd love the chance. If I'm offered it, I'd probably accept it," Bryant told the media on Tuesday.

All the other NBA All-Stars feel the way he does -- embarrassed, afraid to look Vlade Divac, who won the title with Yugoslavia, in the eye -- but he's the first one to come out and say he's going to do something about it.

Plus, he's recruiting a certain 335-pounder.

"Yeah, I've been in his ear a little bit," he said Tuesday of the more dominant O'Neal, Shaquille. "Been in his ear a little bit."

And …

"He said, 'If you do it, I'll do it,' " Bryant says. "So, we'll see."

It's probably going to be like this the next two years. Every superstar who commits will guilt another superstar into committing. But Kobe doesn't need to be goaded into this. "Nah, I pretty well make up my own mind," he says. "If [the other All-Stars] want to go, great. I told Phil [Jackson], 'I'd like to have you as a coach.' So he can finally coach a team that will not run the triangle offense."

He actually might have played in the Worlds last summer, except his wife was pregnant and he figured Paul Pierce could hold down the fort. "I was at every ultrasound, every appointment," he says of the impending birth of a baby girl. "I didn't want to miss anything."

But 2004 is different. In 2004, a little order needs to be restored, and Kobe gets that.

I asked him Tuesday if he would pick his ideal teammates, and he wouldn't go there.

I will.

Starters: Bryant, Jason Kidd, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Shaq. (Note: I asked Shaq Tuesday night if we can count on him coming, and his answer was, "If Kobe plays and Phil Jackson's coach, then there's a 75 percent chance that I'll play. Seventy-five."

	With Kobe on board, the U.S. shouldn't fear Angola.

Next five: Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Chris Webber, Ben Wallace. (Note: After we win the gold, let's have the first five and second five play for the real medal).

Last two: Pierce, Wally Szczerbiak. (Because you need shooters in the international game).

That's a Dream Team all right. But as good as the legendary first one?

"The talent that they had, from Magic to Michael to Bird, to all the great players they had on that team -- it was unbelievable," Kobe says. "That's a once in a lifetime team. This wouldn't be close to that. It would just be an Olympic team."

One that should be good as gold.

Tom Friend is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at tom.friend@espnmag.com.