The U.S. basketball workforce has dominated within the Olympics like no different for the reason that inclusion of NBA gamers in 1992.
Since then, Group USA has received eight gold medals within the Olympics. Followers have witnessed a plethora of phenomenal groups that includes NBA superstars.
The latest workforce featured the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry as Group USA took residence one other gold medal.
The one stain in an in any other case flawless run within the Olympics got here when Group USA received the bronze medal within the 2004 Olympics.
In all of their historical past, Group USA has misplaced simply six video games within the Olympics. Now, that’s dominance! Nevertheless, three out of these six losses got here in the course of the 2004 Olympics.
Sure, the U.S. basketball workforce was picked aside by Puerto Rico, Lithuania, and Argentina within the competitors. Though Group USA walked away with a bronze medal, it was nonetheless undoubtedly probably the most disappointing run for them within the Olympics.
After the embarrassing run, Philadelphia 76ers legend Allen Iverson shared his sincere ideas in regards to the defeats.
“Yeah, [losing] damage. I imply, ’trigger I used to be part of it. It all the time haunts me as a result of my dream was to win a gold medal, however the best way I take a look at life is, the issues that I’ve completed, individuals the place I’m from don’t even get to the doorstep of doing something like that.
“So I thank God that I had the chance to do it, however yeah, it nonetheless bothered me,” Iverson mentioned by way of ESPN.
James, who was simply 19 years previous on the time, additionally had a regarding response, claiming that the workforce lacked ‘self-discipline.’
“We didn’t have the self-discipline, we didn’t have the construction to have the ability to play on a world stage. We had nice basketball gamers, however we didn’t have the construction, and I believe that’s a part of why we completed third,” the then-Cleveland Cavaliers star acknowledged.
Contemplating the magnitude of the failure, fingers had been pointed at everybody on Group USA, together with head coach Larry Brown.
In his typical vogue, Iverson dished out the blame on coach Brown for his failure to correctly make the most of the likes of James and Carmelo Anthony.
“LeBron James would possibly’ve performed 5 minutes a recreation, Carmelo would possibly’ve performed 5 minutes a recreation. It’s only a entire bunch of issues.
“I imply, it simply wasn’t meant to be. It’s so simple as that. The expertise was there — it simply didn’t occur,” Iverson boldly acknowledged.
Group USA discovered from their errors and have received each single gold medal in basketball publish the 2004 catastrophe in Athens.
