Beijing ? The long howl bellowed through the bowels of National Indoor Stadium. Was it man? Beast? Pain or exaltation?

As he ran further toward the USA locker room, Dwyane Wade seemed more a man released from something than awarded something. The gold medal around his neck, which four years ago felt like a bronze anvil, he now kissed repeatedly.

No more talk about courage or commitment. No more about the smarts or selfishness of American basketball players.

They could share. They could play as a team. They could behave as one, too. Wade, and the three holdovers from the 2004 bronze-medal team – LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Carlos Boozer – wanted everyone in the world to know that, too.

“It bothered us a lot,” Wade said. “Especially not really getting an opportunity to help the team. Who’s to say, if we had the opportunity to play, it could be a different outcome in ’04? That’s one thing we did great in this tournament. We used our bench. That’s the reason we’re better than everybody. We don’t (have) one or two guys. We’ve got 12 guys who can play.”

Eight U.S. players had more than 16 minutes of playing time in Sunday’s 118-107 victory over Spain. Four years after serving as one of several Mr. Irrelevants on a disastrously underachieving U.S. team, Wade piloted and punctuated this gold-medal victory with 27 points on 9-for-12 shooting. He scored 21 in the first half, entering the game with the United States trailing by four. He helped establish a frantic pace that held the entire game.

The intensity was quite unlike the smooth ride to get to the gold medal game.

Going into the final, the U.S. team had established itself as a defensive presence, pressuring the ball with a deep bench until opponents cracked.

But Spain came to play. They also thought they could win. The legacy of that ’04 U.S. team (and subsequent world championship tournaments) is that it has made this Olympic tournament credible.

Sure, the Americans had been beating teams by an average of 32 points. But each one of them thought it had a chance. Spain came the closest, down by two with just over eight minutes remaining.

The Americans made more big plays. Wade made the biggest, dropping a long three with just over two minutes left after Spain had cut the lead, once again, to four. And as the ball went in, Wade made a beast-like expression, although, thankfully, without the howl.

“We were at America’s lowest point in ’04,” said Anthony, draped in an American flag. “And to be sitting in front of you guys tonight, on top of the world – I think we did a helluva job of putting America’s basketball where it’s supposed to be, which is at the top of the world.”

If Colangelo has his way, the face of USA Basketball in the future will look a whole lot like Dwyane Wade. Intense. Driven. Full of ego, but a collective one. This was a launching, the CEO kept saying after the gold was won, not a landing. Wade had not only helped the U.S. regain its gold standard, he and his teammates had drafted a blueprint.

“It’s going to be tough to put a team like this back together,” Wade said. “I think the way we represented ourselves, the way we came out and enjoyed this experience, hopefully for the next Olympic team they see the way we did it and try to do it if not the same, better.”