Left field

Big shoes to fill for small U.S. basketball team

Where have all the big men gone?

The United States enters this weekend’s world basketball championships with a squad chock full of gifted NBA players but they will be lacking a dominating inside presence.

When the Americans last won the title, in 1994, seven-foot-one Shaquille O’Neal was a towering presence that led the U.S. team in scoring, rebounds and blocks.

But this year, the only centre wearing the Stars and Stripes will be Tyson Chandler, an agile seven-footer of the Dallas Mavericks who can run the floor like a guard.

Chandler, however, with career averages of 8.1 points and 8.8 rebounds and ready to play for his fourth NBA franchise, is hardly the type to strike fear into an intrepid guard who wanders into the lane.