To think the younger generation thinks this team can beat the Dream Team makes me lose faith in America's future.
LeBronze medal coming up. This team is too old and too injury prone to ever be mentioned in the same breath as the original Dream Team or the Redeem Team.
No you mean Luol Deng. South Sudan was actually pretty good. I think people think it's going to be like 1992 Angola but that team has NBA, G league & NCAA players on it. The teams the original Dream Team played in 92 were pretty horrible - who was the best non NBA player, Oscar Schmidt? Toni Kukoc? Sarunas Marciullonis? Contrast that with now when there's 2 NBA MVPs playing on Greece & Serbia, the 4 time DPOY (plus the actual DPOY in Victor) on France, Canada loaded with stars etc
Sarunas was in the league in 92 so might as well bring up Drazen Petrovic and Detlef Schrempf too. As for guys that were non NBA at the time… Andrew Gaze and you forgot the best out of all of them. Arvydas Sabonis. Dude was the OG unicorn in his prime.
I only watched the extended highlights, but even the win over Serbia wasn't that easy. In the first half it was a real fight until AD closed down the paint in the third ant the Serbs shots stopped falling. Kerr still hasn't found his balance, and he is trying to accommodate the big names. To be clear, Joel isn't on his game and has no place in the starting line-up. Combine that with his recent interview where he actually undermined the aging stars and blatantly stated that Team USA wasn't his first choice and he didn't even feel american (good honesty btw), he is just not a good fit in the team.
The biggest test would be against reigning world champion Germany. I just don't think that Steve Kerr is a good coach for this team. My guess is that Spoelstra will take over after Paris.
Give some respect to Sabonis. Sabonis in 1992 was at Robinson's level. Lithuania had a respectable team. Team USA despite being overpowered... never wavered in effort.
Dream Team was an actual team that the players knew their roles. That's one reason why Isiah was not even an option to replace Stockton if his injury ahead of the games was going to keep him out (Isiah was somehow feuding with everyone EXCEPT Chuck Daly and Charles). Charles and Jordan were the headliners. Bird himself thought he was washed, and Jordan had a role in getting him onto the team. Magic was happy to be alive. Laettner despite his reputation knew he could not disrupt the dynamic. Karl Malone despite being the douche he is would do anything for the flag. Stockton was going to be the distributor that was the clear cut backup to Magic. Ewing, Robinson, and Mullin knew their place. Quitten was hanging onto everyone's coattails. And all of them still played defense.
The NBA Champions would roll through the Olympics…including beating Team USA. Putting out a real team with chemistry … it would noticeably raise the defensive level. Of course you need two replacement players for the foreigners on the Celtics. I’d replace Horford with Naz Reid, and Porzingis with Isaiah Hartenstein
I actually with the in-season tournament included non-NBA club teams... let's see how the Canadian league champ faces off against the Asian league champ...
Team USA up 7 at halftime... I want my country to win, but it's so painful to root for LeBron... I never had such feelings about any of the previous iterations of Team USA...
The turnovers are ****ing killing me!!! This is like watching the 7th grade tournament team I coach. My God, turnovers are killing us, fellas!
