The 2016 Summer Olympics was another chance to see USA Basketball defend the throne. We get to watch our guys demolish teams and defend the gold medal. Yesterday, as I sat back and watched Team USA play Argentina, I was struck by a flashback from 1992.
In 1991, when the greatest basketball team ever assembled was formed for the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona, Spain, the possibilities of their capabilities were endless. The infamous Dream Team. I still remember how Argentina was the only team to get within 40 points of the 1992 Dream Team. Argentina, after not winning a medal in 1996 or 2000, finally beat Team USA in 2004 at the Olympic games in Athens, Greece.
Actually, Team USA lost three games that year with one of those losses coming from Puerto Rico by 19 points. 19 points? Horrible. To real basketball fans, that year was a failure in USA basketball. Those were NBA players. They were supposed to be the best in the world. Instead, they lost to another country. That year, nobody named the USA men’s basketball team. They won a bronze medal.
Then we had the Redeem Team at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, China. That team was on a mission to recapture the gold for USA men’s basketball. They beat Argentina by a comfortable 20 points that year. The gold medal game was against Spain and it was huge. The Spaniards had Pau Gasol and a few other NBA players, so they had some firepower.
I still remember the bar cheering as Team USA closed out the Spanish team by 11 points. That particular game stands out because that’s when I met Alex Smith. At the time, he was the backup quarterback for the Forty-Niners. When he accidentally bumped into me and spilled my beer on me, I had no clue who he was. He bought me a beer to make up for the inconvenience, and we stood there cheering for Team USA together like regular patrons at the club. Of course, I didn’t notice the group of huge linemen standing around us either. After a few transitions, we shook hands and parted ways. That’s when my friend Adrian came up to me and asked how I knew “Alex Smith.” I was clueless. I didn’t care. We had the gold again, and that’s all that mattered to me.
Four years later, in 2012, the Supreme Team (the next generation of USA men’s basketball) showed up in London, England and, again, barely beat Spain in the gold medal game by seven points. However, in the semi-final game they beat the Argentinian team by a solid 26 points, again. Nevertheless, that’s years of talented Spanish and Argentinian teams that have been strong competitors. When did these countries get so good at basketball? Apparently, they’ve always been good. Where do you think guys like Pau Gasol, Ricky Rubio, Luis Scola, and Manu Ginóbili came from? These guys can hoop and they came to play.
Even though Team USA has won every game, as they should, there have been a few close calls. They barely won games against Serbia and France by three points, but the game I watched last night, the one against Argentina, meant something more for some reason. Perhaps it’s because I remember watching the game against them in 1992, the flashback. It was a good game last night, and it shed light on how much the international game of basketball has changed since 1992.
More importantly, that game last night was a statement from the rest of the world to Team USA of today and the future. In fact, all the games since 2004 have made big statements, saying, “you’ve lost before and we came to beat you again.” That statement alone should pump a little fear into Team USA. Yeah, right! It’s more like adrenaline.
When I watch Team USA play, I mean when they really play, they are the best in the world. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best team in the Olympic tournament right now. There are only a few questions left to answer: Can they set aside their egos for the greater glory of the nation? Can they beat teams with players that they’ve played against in the NBA, guys that they’ve won championships with? Can they do it for the gold medals? Can they do for us, the basketball fans?
We will see, I suppose. Next is Spain.