So far during this year’s Federation Internationa le de Basketball Amateur Americas Championship, the U.S. Men’s National basketball team is, big surprise, dominating the rest of the world.
The U.S. squad has posted an impressive 117 points per game while the average margin of victory has been 43 points. The team has looked to Kobe Bryant not for scoring but for defensive purposes-as he has played lock-down defense against the opponent’s top scorer.
LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony have provided the bulk of the scoring for the United States, which has helped the team stroll to an undefeated 7-0 record. And with three games left on its FIBA schedule, team USA will match up tonight against its toughest opponent yet: Argentina.
The question, however, isn’t whether this team will qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but rather if this team should be compared with the 1992 Dream Team. This year’s team is very talented and has some of the NBA’s biggest and brightest stars but they would have no chance if matched up against ’92’s Dream Team.
This year’s team boasts powerhouses like Kobe, LeBron, Carmelo, Michael Redd, Jason Kidd and Dwight Howard. But no matter who they bring in, they will never be anything like the ’92 Dream Team.
With a team full of Hall-of-Famer caliber players – Jordan, Magic, Bird, Barkley, Drexler, Ewing, Robinson, Malone, Mullin, Pippen, Stockton – the 1992 Dream Team was arguably the greatest team in the history of sports, seemingly devoid of a visible flaw.
They breezed through the Barcelona Olympics going 8-0 and averaging 117 ppg. None of the games they played were close by any measure.
This year, the team will look to those players from the Bronze finish in Athens in 2004 to step up and bring the United States back to the top.
James and Anthony, who were both on the roster in Athens, saw very limited playing time. But now, they are the top two U.S. scorers and are ready to lead this team alongside Kobe Bryant.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski, a great defensive coach, knows what team USA needs to work on, and that’s defense. As the old saying goes: “defense wins championships.”
After a strong summer campaign and FIBA games, it looks like team USA is back on track and will be ready to compete for the gold medal in Beijing. As long as they focus on getting better defensively, this team should not disappoint. As for being compared to the Dream Team, let’s see if they can bring home the gold in ’08 before we do any comparing.
