I read this: The U.S. men have collected a medal in all 18 Olympics in which they have competed, including 15 gold medals, one silver and two bronze medals. The American men own an impressive 138-5 (.965 winning percentage) all-time record in Olympic action. Since NBA players began representing the United States in 1992, the USA is 53-3 in seven Olympics, capturing six gold medals and one bronze medal. The USA currently enjoys a 25-game Olympic win streak that dates back to the bronze medal game of the 2004 Athens Olympics. ……. So, actually, our college amateurs had gone 85-2 over the years before the NBA players were used; the pros are just a bit behind at 53-3. Luka Doncic has his country in the tournament for the first time. Durant will be passing Carmelo Anthony for all-time scoring leader. I guess I’ll get to see Lilliard play, which I only rarely see.
The reason the US lobbied for pro's to play was because the world was catching and surpassing our collegiate players in the 80's in all international play not just the Olympics. With the Olympics being held twice during roughly a 14 year span that equates to only two losses in the Olympic tournament games but HUGE developmental progress was made internationally during that time. There were also other losses in Pan Am games, etc and the pressure was building. Had we left only collegiate players on the team the US would be dominated every year in the 90's on to today especially when the elite college talent started going pro after their freshman or sophomore years. Just look at all of the dominant international players in the NBA today. In the early days they weren't in the NBA and weren't nearly as developed/talented as today. What I find interesting is when the Dream Team was put together and absolutely destroyed the rest of the world, it awakened everyone else to while they had progressed they had a really long way to go to compete at the NBA level so they upped the ante even more. We still have the overall better talent, but the entitled NBA group thinks representing the USA at the Olympics is a waste of their time which is why they started adding back in a few college players for the passion. It doesn't surprise me we've lost one more game since the 90's.
Well, also the international Olympic teams have people like Doncic or Manu etc, who are from their own countries, but are stepping right off the NBA court to play, so they aren’t necessarily surprised by what the NBA superstars can do, and have been in lots of games where coaches have (at least) attempted to stop these guys like Durant or LeBron. Again, that only adds up to dropping about one game out of every twenty, instead of winning literally every game. (Without looking, that’s probably 40-0 against patsies and 15-3 against decent teams.)
The US team is very old this year. Only Booker, Tatum, and Adebayo are under the age of 26, which is the average age on some of the other countries' rosters. We're going to see a lot of three pointers and rotating the ball around to find the open shot. Other teams will be more adept at driving and distributing, but I don't think that'll be enough to beat the US.
Well, looks like we might be adding to the loss totals. It is unfathomable to me that a group of NBA players could lose to Nigeria even when they aren't "clicking". They should be able to sleep walk through a game like this. U.S. Men Struggle to Click in Exhibition Loss to Nigeria.
Maybe what differentiates the all stars normally is that they actually put in more effort than the regular NBA players, effort to get open, to close a defensive gap, to chase down a fast break from behind, etc. Maybe at regular effort, they are just about the same as regular NBA players. They can’t have been motivated to play this exhibition at the effort level of the playoffs they were just in—a pace that was leaving about 1/3 of them hurt after each series. but I didn’t see the game, so that may not be the issue
