Few other teams in international competition have the reputation of the United States Men's Basketball team. With three world championships and twelve Olympic Gold Medals the American men's basketball program moved to new heights in 1992 when NBA players graced the court for the first time. NBA stars such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird amongst others traveled to Barcelona to play against the rest of the world.
The US Dream Team dominated the competition with power, style and grace putting a show that has since been the benchmark for all team sports to be played. The USA continued their dominance in two encore performances in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000. In Athens in 2004 the US was expected to repeat their previous dominance in international competition when they were stunned by Puerto Rico in their first game of the Olympic competition. This also made Puerto Rico the first team other than the Soviet Union to beat the United States in Olympic competition.
The United States successes and failures have not been without their controversies. In 1972 in Munich the United States were beaten for the first time in Olympic competition by the USSR in controversial fashion when the referee decided to replay the last three seconds numerous types until the USSR scored the winning basket. The Dream Team also caused controversy when HIV positive basketball star Magic Johnson decided to play at the games. While many players supported the idea, some players and fans were outspoken against it. As a team with such high profile their successes, failures and controversies receive much media attention and scrutiny.
The USA team's presence at the top of the game had been tested and after the disappointing 6th place in the 2002 world championships and their Bronze in Athens the US Basketball team set to rebuild their basketball program. After restructuring the program and the team the United States got back on track at the World Championship before being stunned by a strong Greek team in the finals.
In 2008 the US team led by Superstars such as Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony have set out to redeem the US position as the dominant international force in basketball. While the USA will be favorites for the competition it will by no means be easy with the quality of international competition being considerably stronger than in the past. A number of NBA superstars will be playing for other internation teams such as Yao Ming (China), Pau Gasol (Spain), Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), Manu Ginobli (Argentina), Andrew Bogut (Australia) and Andrei Kirilenko (Russia).
With a lot of the pride and a massive reputation riding on the present United States team to deliver the summer they will have tough competition from 2006 World champions Spain, 2007 Eurobasket Champions Russia, World and Eurobasket silver medalists Greece, Olympic heavy weights Lithuania and the tough Argentina team. Are these nations are capable basketball powerhouses who are gold medal contenders.
With such a rich history it will be interesting to note whether the United States Men's basketball team will re-ascend to the top of the international pile or whether another powerhouse will emerge.
If you want to keep update on the progress on all your favorite teams and players during the Olympics or read about your favorite NBA, Europeans and Collegiate stars please visit our website. For the latest Olympic Basketball action please visit our page and subscribe to our RSS feed to receive the latest updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment