The 2024 US Men’s Basketball Team > The Dream Team?
If I had heard you say before the Paris Olympics that the American team this year was stronger than the 1992 team, my spontaneous and instinctive reaction would have been: you must show what you contributed to that calculation.
The They would The members of this year’s star-studded version of Team USA will have to show it.
You wanted to name this team, which barely beat South Sudan in the run-up to the Olympics, the best and greatest team? I was inclined to let them win first.
The claim that this team was the best of all before Paris seemed to me like ideal material for a psychology course – a real lesson in recency bias.
As if people should brush up on their art history. As if this could serve as a study in perspective and a refresher course on how profoundly influential the Dream Team was. How iconic. How incredible. How cool.
How this team, with the laid-back style of Michael Jordan in his prime, as well as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and eight other members of the Hall of Fame, shook the entire globe.
It felt like the math didn’t add up when you tried to quantify it: Yes, I know Magic was 33 and Bird was 36 that summer in Barcelona and neither was at the peak of his powers, but, uh, LeBron James is 39, Steph Curry is 36, and Kevin Durant is 35. Still great every night, but not better than ever.
So I wasn’t sure what kind of comparison you were trying to throw at me to override a core belief I’ve had since I was a kid, watching the members of the Dream Team establish themselves as the greatest basketball team of all time, forever and ever.
But think of me as summer school. Got it, got it. Aha!
In this example, a team dominated its competition, averaging 117.3 points and winning its eight games by an average of 44 points, including the semifinals by 51 points and the gold medal game by 32 points.
The other team averaged 105 points and won its six Olympic events by an average of 19 points. It had to overcome a 17-point deficit to win its semifinal by four points, then needed a late surge to take gold with an 11-point victory in the Olympic final.
One team is clearly ahead.
It is Team 2, this year’s team, that had to compete against such superior competition – a deep pool of talent that in many ways harks back to the Dream Team 32 years ago.
MJ, Magic and Bird – and Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen and Patrick Ewing. Karl Malone, David Robinson, Clyde Drexler and John Stockton. Players who inspired, impressed and got the ball rolling around the globe nine Olympic Games before.
He set in motion the plot involving this year’s American team, led by Lebron, Steph and KD, with Laker Anthony Davis and LA native Jrue Holiday doing much of the defensive work, and the Clippers’ Tyronn Lue providing insight as an assistant coach.
“There is the dream team, the Redeemer team. What kind of team is that?”
LeBron: “The Avengers.” pic.twitter.com/zFUfo1UlOk
— Emblem Sports (@Emblem_Sports) 11 August 2024
The “Avengers” of basketball, as LeBron called them, whose mission was to prove that they were the greatest collection of talent of all time – a necessary goal, as it turned out, given such a strong field.
While Team USA didn’t have to face Loki and Thanos, they did have to face Nikola Jokić in the semifinals and Victor Wembenyama in the finals – the Joker and Wemby, comic-book-style opponents we could never have imagined in 1992.
This wasn’t a finals matchup against Toni Kukoč and a Croatian team with a handful of guys with a bit of NBA experience. This was a tournament full of NBA stars, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert. Peppered with NBA quality talent, from Nicolas Batum to Dennis Schröder and Jamal Murray to Bogdan Bogdanovic.
What it was: The biggest tournament ever, the hardest to win, demanding everything from the biggest and brightest stars of their generation and requiring a sense of drama to match the Hollywood Olympics in four years.
The four NBA regular-season MVPs on the U.S. roster had standout games, including a triple-double from LeBron with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in the U.S.’s thrilling 95-91 semifinal win over Serbia on Thursday, when the Americans had to overcome a 17-point deficit in the first half and 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Chef Curry scored 36 points in the game, including his 3-pointer to put the team ahead with 2:16 left. Joel Embiid — a native of Cameroon who was the United States’ only naturalized player — added 19 points, making 8 of 11 shots.
And in the final against France, Curry was back in the game. In the final 2:43 minutes of the 98-87 victory, he made four of his eight three-point shots, ending the hosts’ dream of dethroning the Americans. James contributed 14 shots and Kevin Durant – the first four-time gold medalist in men’s basketball in Olympic history – scored 15.
It was the leaders of the Lakers, Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns who saved the day, even though their teams either failed to advance past the first round of the NBA playoffs last season or, in Curry’s case, failed to make it at all.
That tournament ended with a victory for the Boston Celtics (whose three Olympians did not include Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, but did include Jayson Tatum, who was often the underdog in coach Steve Kerr’s rotation in Paris) over the Dallas Mavericks, led by Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic.
The The tournament ended with Team USA’s fifth consecutive gold, a streak that could be in even greater jeopardy in LA four years from now. Because it will almost certainly require playing at least at that level to continue to conquer an ever-improving world pool – and if that team The Team …
This is the stuff great sequels are made of.
But now let’s go ahead and crown them with LeBron of House James, King of the NBA, protector of American exceptionalism, and now three-time gold medalist and leader of the greatest team of all time.
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