As the national anthem plays, the U.S. men’s basketball team stands with their right hands on their hearts, gold medals around their neck. Being the best is the standard for U.S. basketball and anything less is seen as a failure.
The 1992 Olympics was the first time NBA players were allowed to compete for their country, resulting in an unsurprising interest from all the top players in the league. The team consisted of 12 Hall of Famers and the best player in college basketball at the time. They were named the “Dream Team” and dominated their way to a gold medal.
The Dream Team kicked off two more controlling gold medal runs for the U.S. in 1996 and 2000. In 2004, however, the team did not have as many stars as they had in the past, which had a strong impact on the success of the team. This caused them to lose in the semifinal to Argentina 89-81. Settling with the bronze medal was something the U.S. should never do with the reputation they have. Even before NBA players were allowed to play in the Olympics, the U.S was still the dominant force in basketball.
A four year rebuild period started, which helped pull in the biggest superstars in the NBA, leading to yet another dominant eight year stint from 2008-2016. But once again, some stars chose to opt out of playing for the national team, putting the team in a tough situation.
Issues started to present themselves after COVID, starting in the 2021 Olympics where the U.S. lost two friendly matchups. Although they won the gold, things were not looking great. Many NBA stars were choosing to sit out and the team was not looking as good as they should. NBA stars deciding to not play in the Olympics should not be the issue it has been. It gives players a chance to play during the offseason and a chance to get real experience playing with the top players in the world.
Then, a loss in the 2023 world cup sparked motivation to players around the league to join. It started with LeBron James speaking about playing in 2024, which caused a domino effect of superstars making commitments to play in Paris according to USA Basketball.
On April 17, the roster was officially announced. The team consisted of 12 NBA All Stars, four MVPs, six NBA Champions and multiple future Hall of Famers. The return of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid are the four notable players.
This new roster is being compared to the Avengers being assembled around social media, starting from tennis star Coco Gauff in an interview; a very fitting nickname for a team that should dominate their international opponents.
The Avengers are leading U.S. men’s basketball in the right direction. The mix of old superstars and new superstars teaming up should inspire younger players to continue representing their country. This could push the U.S. for more consistent dominance over longer periods of time.
It is important for the U.S. to assemble the best possible teams as international competition gets harder each year. Players like Nikola Jokic in Serbia and Victor Wambanyama in France are on the rise with more coming making the gold medal harder and harder to win.
All should be good for team USA as long as they are able to pull in the top Americans to come play at each Olympics. There will most likely always be a stronger overall American presence in basketball as a whole and making other countries struggle in competing with the best of the best.
