1988…2004…2023.
It’s a movie we’ve all seen before. And we keep coming back to the theater.
Few times in basketball history has the United States been dethroned on the world’s stage, and every time it happens, the reaction from America is one of shock and awe.
But in the modern era, the United States can no longer send their second and third-best teams with minimal preparation to international tournaments and expect to win. The reality is simple: the basketball world is no longer ruled by the United States.
In 1988, United States Basketball (USAB) took the bronze medal in the Seoul Olympics. The failure to obtain gold caused such a ruckus that the ‘Dream Team’ — an American squad starring Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird — was built to steamroll any opponent at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The superteam won the most dominant gold medal basketball had ever seen.
In the 2004 Athens Olympics, USAB again settled for bronze, causing The Dream Team’s sequel, ‘The Redeem Team,’ led by Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, to avenge the United States in Beijing in 2008.
This brings us to the most recent installment of the trilogy. In September, USAB failed to medal at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, losing the third-place match to a Canadian team headlined by Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Memphis Grizzlies enforcer Dillon Brooks.
The team America sent to the tournament was far from mediocre. Filled with NBA All-Stars like Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo and rising superstar of the Minnesota Timberwolves Anthony Edwards, America was more than competitive. But they didn’t win. They weren’t the best cast the U.S. could send.
So, once again, the nation is up in arms. There is a thought spiraling across the basketball world that the U.S. may not just be vulnerable at the 2024 Paris Olympics … they may not even medal — an event that has never happened (the United States boycotted the 1980 Olympics).
It’s a different world than in 1988 and 2004. The 1988 USA roster consisted of only collegiate athletes. In 2004, America wasn’t prepared for the team-oriented style of play from countries like Argentina and Lithuania.
Americans have always believed they could have won, should have won; most of the time, they were right. This time, the emotion isn’t frustration. The feeling isn’t that the U.S. should “take what’s theirs.” It’s a need to prove they’re the best.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Joe Vardon reported that LeBron James is doing his best Nick Fury impression by recruiting the best players America can send — and it’s working.
“James has spoken to Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum and Draymond Green, and they are all prepared to commit (to Paris 2024),” The Athletic reported.
James and Davis have not participated in the Olympics since 2014. Curry has never played in the Olympics. They never needed to.
Basketball has reached a level of parity across the world that has never been seen before.
Ten years ago, Tony Parker (France) took sixth place in NBA MVP voting and was the only international athlete who appeared in the top ten.
Between 2019 and 2022, Giannis Antetokoumpo from Greece and Nikola Jokić from Serbia each won the award twice.
In 2023, Joel Embiid (Cameroon) took home the hardware, Jokić and Antetokoumpo finished second and third, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) and Luka Dončić (Slovenia) took fifth and eighth, respectively. Half of the top ten players in the NBA are from across the globe.
For the 2024 Paris Olympics, France will have wunderkind Victor Wembanyama and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. Canada will look to add NBA champion Jamal Murray to their already well-rounded squad.
That’s not even mentioning Spain, Serbia, Greece and Slovenia, all countries with star-studded squads hungry to take Olympic gold.
The world is one where NBA role players like Patty Mills (Australia) and Bogdan Bogdonović (Serbia) could be gold-medal athletes, a world where NBA journeyman Dennis Schröeder (Germany) is a FIBA World Cup MVP.
15-year NBA veteran JJ Reddick said on his podcast, “The global game is excellent across the world. There are players everywhere. It shouldn’t be an afterthought that (USAB is) going to win gold, the expectation should be.”
The stars are aligning for the greatest international tournament basketball has ever seen. America will remain the frontrunner, but it will be the showdown of the century.
So mark your calendars and preorder your tickets for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the feature presentation of the decade. Cue the lights. Set the cameras. Get ready for the action. Basketball is no longer America’s to dominate — and the sport is all the better for it.
