The U.S. Olympic basketball teams have been one of the surest things in the history of sports. Since 1932, the U.S. men and women have lost a grand total of nine games in Olympic competiton, winning gold on 25 occasions.
Yesterday, both teams learned an important lesson just a week before the Paris Olympics. That lesson: “You can’t just show up.”
The men’s Olympic team, chock full of million-dollar professionals and future Hall-of-Famers, found themselves down at halftime against a team representing South Sudan, which only became a nation about a decade and a half ago. Without veteran Kevin Durant, the U.S. still was able to pull back even and won the game in the final 10 seconds on a LeBron James layup.
At least the men got a win.
The women, on Saturday night, fell adrift 20 points against a WNBA all-star team including rookie sensations Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, as well as veterans like Arike Ogunbuwole, who took the game MVP with 34 points.
Of course, part of the story here is the fact that USA Basketball seemingly had its 12 players picked months before the official announcement, and therefore could afford to select great servants of the program such as guard Diana Taurasi, who is going for her sixth Olympic gold medal.
As we’ve said before, the women’s senior basketball team may actually be the most difficult U.S. team to make, given the quality of domestic competition as well as the glut of superstar players in both the WNBA and the college game. Many columnists and writers are likely to make commentaries about whether the WNBA All-Stars should have, in whole or in part, made the Olympic side.
Of course, I think there isn’t another team worldwide which is likely to be able to match the Olympians in terms of athleticism, size, and shotmaking.
Except the WNBA All-Stars.
Which makes me wonder if there should be more of this type of all-star competitions in future years.