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Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee
The 2004 team had Tim Duncan, Allan Iverson, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony, who are all projected to be future NBA Hall-of-famers. They also had at least 2 other all-stars in Amare Stoudamire and Stephon Marbury. That team went 5-3 at the Olympics, losing to Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina, and barely beating Greece by 6. They had a Hall-of-Fame coach in Larry Brown too.
The bottom line is that the US is now one of the best teams in the world, and on any given day.......
Might as well accept it.
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Yeah, but the entire team was not that way like the original Dream Team. Other than Christian Lathner, who is not a Hall of Famer on that team?
Even after that team, many of the All-Stars of the entire league were on the USA team and this is why it took last Olympics to lose a game. Lamar Odom was on that team. Odom might be a good player, but he is not close to being a superstar or close to it. You had a lot of guys that for whatever reasons decide they did not want to play.
If you watched the Greece game, it was obvious the Greece team played together and knew who was the go to guy. I am not sure the USA had that same chemistry. USA is a lot better, but these guys have to have more time playing together than a couple of months to get that consistency. The Greece team played other tournaments together and they know what to do. Also they play under different rules sets and this can and I believe causes problems.
These are not excuses, they are just facts. We can what if all night and day, but the US team got beat fair and square. It is just harder to beat teams that have played together and understand their roles. This is the case in HS, college or the pros. In HS you can tell the teams that played together through grammar school to their senior year in HS. It is not always the most talented teams that win.
Peace