When asked in a 2023 interview about what he thought of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Champions calling themselves the “World Champions,” American sprinter Noah Lyles, a world champion himself in the 100m dash, responded almost belligerently, “World Champion of what?” Almost a year later, the US Men’s Olympic Basketball team brought home gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics in record-breaking fashion.
Since basketball was introduced into the Olympics in 1936, the US men’s team has only failed to claim gold a total of four times. However, the Olympics are not the only form of international basketball, and in the case of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Cup, the United States has not been anywhere near as successful, only winning the tournament a total of five times since 1950.
Throughout all of the discourse surrounding this team, there lay the sight of the 2024 Olympic games, possibly the biggest stage for international basketball and a chance for the world’s basketball stars to make their countries proud. LeBron James and Stephen Curry, players who opted out of previous Olympic teams and FIBA opportunities, stepped up alongside veterans such as Kevin Durant and first-time Olympians, such as Anthony Edwards and Derrick White. Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday returned to the team as well as Anthony Davis of the LA Lakers, Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat, Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns, Tyreese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers, and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers. With this team full of NBA All-Stars, and coached by five-time NBA champion and four-time coaching champion Steve Kerr, many Americans and fans of the NBA came together to cheer for what was dubbed “The Dream Team 2.0” after the Michael Jordan-led “Dream Team” of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Hopes were through the roof for this team, but the pre-Olympic showcases had other things to say. The US struggled against the likes of Australia and Germany, barely edging out wins thanks to comebacks led by LeBron James. Although their showcases against Canada and Serbia were strong wins for the Americans, South Sudan, a team that was favored to lose to the US by 30 points, put up a great fight and came inches away from dealing this US team their first loss only to come up a point short at the last second. Although the United States won all five of their exhibition games, fans were skeptical of their ability to win gold.
The US did, however, struggle in the semifinals, edging out Nikola Jokic’s Serbia by four points in a hard-fought win, but they pulled it together, topping France 98-87 in the finals. This initial doubt didn’t last long, as the US got it together by the time the Olympics rolled around, putting up 20+ point wins consistently in the group stage and into the quarterfinals where they beat out Brazil by a score of 122-87, their biggest victory of the tournament, making them the champions of the world.
