This year’s edition of Team USA men’s basketball was so talented and won the Olympic gold medal with so much relative ease that some have questioned if it was the most talented iteration of Team USA basketball ever.
The two other main candidates are the 2008 squad, known as the “Redeem Team,” and the 1992 “Dream Team,” which was the first to be comprised of NBA players.
Dwight Howard played on the 2008 squad that defeated Spain for the gold medal with the help of LeBron James and the late great Kobe Bryant. The former Los Angeles Lakers center was asked whether the 2008 or 2024 Olympic basketball team would win in a seven-game head-to-head series, and he took the former.
“I’m going with our team. Well, we got a prime Kobe. We got young Bron. We got the bald-head D Wade (Dwayne Wade),” Howard said to Arenas. “Talk about Bron at 23, I’m 22, Melo (Carmelo Anthony) at 24, Chris Bosh at 24.”
This year’s team had James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Anthony Edwards, among other stars and superstars. However, having players like that when they’re young or in the primes rather than on the back ends of their careers is an advantage.
In addition, the 2008 team had a legitimate closer in Bryant, who was at the top of his game and had reached full maturity as a player and a man. While the 2024 “Avengers” had several men who could produce under pressure, Bryant was as great as anyone in those situations and was as cold-blooded as any athlete ever.
That’s the type of advantage that, all things being equal, usually pushes a particular team over the top.
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Publish date : 2024-09-05 01:02:00
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