Jon Darsee
| Special to Hawk Central
Which team is the biggest threat to Team USA winning gold in men’s basketball?
Is there anyone ANYONE out there that can beat Team USA? If so, the For The Hoops crew has thoughts on who it might be.
Six years before the 1992 Dream Team exploded onto the scene, a creeping realization had grown in American basketball circles that we could no longer win on the international stage with college athletes.
Watching Steve Kerr coach our men’s Olympic team has me reflecting on the 1986 World Championships (since renamed the FIBA World Cup). Kerr was a reserve guard on that team led by former University of Iowa and future Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson. The team was anchored by David Robinson, Sean Elliot, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Mugsy Bogues. Kerr, a junior-to-be under Olson at the University of Arizona, came off the bench and was a major contributor, averaging 10 points a game.
Olson’s team holds the distinction of being the last group of U.S. amateurs to win a gold medal against the highest level of men’s international basketball competition.
I had just arrived in Brazil to play in the Paulista pro league as the World Championships were commencing in Spain. Most of the Brazilian national team members played in my league. They had high hopes of medaling. In an interview shortly after I’d arrived, I was caught off-guard by a reporter peppering me with questions as to why Americans didn’t respect the World Championships. He insisted that the rest of the world considered the Olympics a lesser event. I tried to explain why we considered the Olympics more important. A few days later an elegant older woman stopped me on the street, welcoming me to Brazil. I was shocked when the sweet conversation ended with her chastising me by pointing out that the USA hadn’t won the World Championships since 1954.
I had doubts that coach Olson and his team could win. The odds of beating the favorites − the defending champs from the Soviet Union with seasoned pros like Arvydas Sabonis or Yugoslavia with Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac − seemed overwhelmingly against us. A shaky one-point victory over Puerto Rico in pool play followed by a four-point loss to Argentina reinforced my doubts.
But when Lute’s collection of college all-stars manhandled the Brazilians 96-80 in the semifinals, then defeated the Soviet Union in an 87-85 nailbiter to win gold, I felt relieved and redeemed. Smith led the United States in the gold medal game with 23 points; Robinson added 20. Kerr was a key role player throughout.
Winning a world championship was a high honor for coach Olson and his team; the significance of that championship has only grown as it became obvious that our amateurs would never again win versus the world’s best professionals. In both the 1988 Olympic Games and the 1990 World Championships, the USA team of college stars finished a disappointing third, earning bronze medals.
Today there are a record 68 players with NBA experience competing against the U.S. in the Olympics. The reigning MVP, the Defensive Player of the Year, the Rookie of the Year, and multiple NBA all-stars are vying to dethrone the Americans. The 1992 Dream Team turned basketball into a global game, facilitating its growth in popularity unlike any other sport. The results are both remarkable and inspirational (look no further than South Sudan and former Iowa great Peter Jok).
Coach Olson’s style has had a lifelong impact on many of his players, and I’m always looking to spot his influence in Kerr’s coaching style. One night during the Golden State Warriors’ last championship run in 2022, I texted one of Kerr’s Arizona teammates asking if he noticed that every one of the Kerr-coached Warriors championship teams led the NBA in third-quarter point differential. He fired back saying, “That’s no coincidence!” Everyone who played for Lute had it pounded it into them that the most important minutes of the game were the first five of the second half.
Though the U.S. men will never turn back the clock to Dream Team dominance or match the unfathomable 32-year sustained perfection of the USA women’s team, as a nation we can be proud of the global love affair we inspired.
If there is anyone prepared to keep gold around Americans’ necks in Paris, it’s Kerr − a man with nine NBA championship rings who cut his international teeth as a gritty underdog with Olson, his coach and mentor, on his way to winning an improbable world championship.
Jon Darsee was a member of the University of Iowa 1980 Final Four team and a three-year basketball letterman. He now serves as chief innovation officer at the UI.
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Publish date : 2024-08-06 00:51:00
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