USA romps; James suspended

Larry Brown also benched Allen Iverson and Amare Stoudemire.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Reunited, and it feels so ... familiar.
The U.S. Olympic team tipped off its exhibition season with an easy 96-71 victory over Puerto Rico on Saturday; although, the most intriguing action came beforehand between old sparring partners Larry Brown and Allen Iverson.
Brown held Iverson, LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire out of the game for showing up late to a pre-game meeting, a move that brought back memories of the six fractious seasons The Coach and The Answer spent together with the Philadelphia 76ers.
"They broke a team rule, and we are a team," Brown said. "They paid the penalty. Nobody wanted to embarrass them, and now we're moving on."
Down the road before
Brown and Iverson have been down this road before. Their time together with the Sixers was riddled with disagreements, tardiness and a general lack of harmony. They claimed to have patched things up since Brown left after the 2003 season, but in their first significant reunion, there was trouble.
Iverson claimed he "couldn't have been more than five minutes late."
"I'm the captain on the team and to be suspended just for being a couple minutes late just doesn't sit well for me," he said. "I'm supposed to be one of the leaders of the team, and this is not a good look."
Almost as upsetting to Brown was the decision by arena officials to announce the suspensions over the public-address system. A sellout crowd of about 14,000 fans who don't get to see NBA stars pop in to Jacksonville too often booed lustily, and Brown glared over to the scorer's table.
"I was totally embarrassed by the announcement because it embarrassed those guys, and it was totally uncalled for," Brown said.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the crowd chanted "I-ver-son, I-ver-son," but to no avail. He, James and Stoudemire spent the entire game watching from the bench in shorts.
"It was a surprise that he made that decision at first," said James, who claimed he was between five and 10 minutes late. "But I've got to go with what the coach said."
The other nine players put in a hot-and-cold effort to be expected from a group that is just getting to know each other and was further hamstrung by the suspensions.
Carmelo Anthony and Carlos Boozer led the Americans with 16 points each. Dwyane Wade had eight assists, more than half of which were alley-oops, or sweet, no-look feeds. Tim Duncan finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
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