What happens if our best isn’t good enough?
And even if we do our best and get the job done, how close is USA Basketball to ceding absolute dominance?
At the Paris Olympics, the results shouldn’t be seen solely as a referendum on the U.S. team. The larger goal should be to clarify the overall state of this global game.
I would argue that the U.S. has yet to lose when fielding its best team of professional players. Failures have come when fielding “B” or “C” teams, either through negligence or desperation when other players decline to play.
This will be the ninth Olympics in the NBA era. In the past eight, the U.S. has a 58-4 record, seven gold medals, and one bronze medal. Three of those losses came at the Athens Games in 2004, when the team finished third because they didn’t have a combination of up-and-coming stars and underperforming veterans. The other loss came three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, when the U.S. bounced back to win the gold medal.
These losses, combined with shaky showings in the past two FIBA World Cups (including seventh- and fourth-place finishes), have largely worn off the novelty of a U.S. losing with NBA players. Professional losses are still big news, and they invite legitimate criticism, especially when big stars waver in their commitment to the national team. But while we scrutinize the nation’s player development practices and how players constantly waver between lack of interest and enthusiasm for the sport, the more relevant story is the world.
For those clamoring for a return to the days of college players, that’s too narrow-minded. Team USA would likely never win a medal today if it didn’t include NBA players. Consider how much has changed: Before the NBA, the U.S. was 85-2 in the Olympics. The two losses, in 1972 and 1988, came to the Soviet Union, the first of which ended in perhaps the most controversial ending in basketball history.
From the U.S. perspective, the country hadn’t suffered an unfair defeat until it had to settle for bronze at the Seoul Games in 1988. The United States Basketball Association responded by creating the Dream Team in 1992, but in the NBA era of FIBA basketball, nothing motivates and engages superstars more than a revenge mission.
The sheer dominance of the team featuring Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird inspired the world as much as it demoralized the competition. Just 12 years later, the U.S. again finished with a disappointing bronze medal in 2004. That led to a redeemable team in 2008 and an even stronger one in 2012. The U.S. also won gold in 2016 and 2021, but they had to overcome a lack of interest and injuries to superstars to win without some of the game’s elite players. But after finishing only fourth in the 2023 World Cup with an undersized “C” team full of young stars, the best players are eager to recapture American basketball dominance.
It’s awesome to be a part of Team USA again, it’s awesome to have NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown sitting at home in disgrace and hinting at conspiracies, it’s awesome to have premature debates about how great this team is on paper. It’s a fun debate, but through two exhibition games we’ve all seen the rough road ahead.
This isn’t a story about a group of big names chasing gold medals and the clout that comes with it. This isn’t a story about putting on a show. This is a story about a group of elite talent and high-level role players coming together as a team, regardless of time. Within their first 10 days together, this team’s promise and potential struggles were clear.
In Monday’s 98-92 win over Australia in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the U.S. team played well to build a 22-point lead before nearly losing it due to numerous turnovers and poor defense. The turnovers could be improved somewhat with more time and familiarity. However, Australia scored 68 points in the paint, exposing the U.S. defense’s difficulty staying in front of players driving to the basket. In terms of rim protection, Anthony Davis continued to be a force, scoring 17 points and recording 14 rebounds in 18 minutes in addition to some great post defense. Bam Adebayo had some defensive success. Starting center Joel Embiid has yet to make an impact defensively.
A big differentiator for U.S. teams in many Olympics has been their ball-stealing defenders who pressured the guards at the point of attack, and this team, despite all this talent, isn’t as prepared to play that way as past teams have been — better than the World Cup team from a year ago that couldn’t bother opponents defensively and wasn’t big enough to finish fourth.
Team USA managing director Grant Hill and coach Steve Kerr addressed the size issue by assuming Embiid will be back to form over the next two weeks, but the team is still missing at least one high-caliber perimeter defender to be a truly disruptive force, even though Boston Celtics guard Derrick White was added in late to replace the struggling Kawhi Leonard.
Maybe someone will sacrifice offense to become a defensive playmaker in the coming weeks, or maybe this team will have to win with exceptional offensive efficiency, which will be difficult with so little preparation time, and Kevin Durant’s availability as he recovers from a calf injury will be a big question mark for them to be that dangerous.
It seems certain already that, despite all the talent, Team USA will not be the strongest American team to ever step on the court. But that doesn’t make this team bad. Dominance is no longer a luxury, especially when you have A-list players. If you’re looking for someone to blame, look no further than medal contenders like France, Canada, Germany, Serbia and Australia. This could be the best 12-team basketball tournament in Olympic history.
The U.S. basketball team doesn’t need to bring back the Dream Team to do well — it just needs to beat hosts France and the other teams in the tournament.
