USA Basketball at the Olympic Games - Summary
This page includes basic information about the United States National Team performances at the Summer Olympic Games.
Here you have the basic information about the USA Basketball team performances at the Summer Olympic Games since Berlin 1936, the first edition of the Olympics where the sport of basketball was included.United States Basketball was always one of the top 3 teams in the Olympics with the only exception of Moscow 1980 where USA, Argentina, Canada, China, Mexico and Puerto Rico all qualified for the Olympics, but chose to not participate in the Games in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. USA Basketball won 16 of 20 possible Gold Medals with its brightest point in Barcelona 1992 where the original "Dream Team", the first with NBA players, averaged an Olympic record of 117.3 points a game and won the competition by an average of 43.8 points. It is considered the best basketball squad ever with an endless list of glories of the sport like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley among others. The closest any opponent could come was 32 points. Despite the dominance of the United States through history, a team of NBA players was shocked by a loss against Argentina (led by Spurs star Manu Ginobili) 89-81 in the semifinals of Athens 2004. As a result, USA basketball started a program led by coach Mike Krzyzewski to have a team with a really committed group of players for the 2008 Olympic Games. The result was a new mentality (with knowledge of their international rivals and respect for them) that took them back to the top in Beijing.
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