A star-studded Team USA will take to Paris in the coming weeks for the upcoming 2024 Olympics.
Head coach Steve Kerr’s supremely talented roster is made up of a dizzying array of NBA talent that includes Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James and Steph Curry.
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LeBron and Curry will be playing on Team USA for the first time in Olympic playCredit: Getty
The US has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to basketball stars and have once again assembled one of the most formidable teams in all of sports.
It’s not dissimilar to Team USA’s legendary 1992 Dream Team, featuring NBA icons Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Charles Barkley, who stomped on everyone in Barcelona, Spain that summer by an average margin of 44 points en route to an Olympic gold medal.
They were so dominant that they scored more than 100 points in every game (averaging 117.3 points per game) and never called a single timeout.
Much like that stupefying squad, the 2024 version of Team USA features numerous NBA championships, Finals MVPs, MVPs, All-Star selections and All-NBA honors.
Serbian national team head coach Svetislav Pesic thinks this year’s US Olympics squad is better than the one in ’92.
Kerr acknowledged Pesic’s bold claim in a recent press conference, but thinks the huge difference in competition in today’s game makes it difficult to compare eras.
“I think from the standpoint of career achievement, this team is probably as decorated as any since the ’92 Dream Team,” Kerr told a room of reporters including talkSPORT.
“The difference is in 1992, the world wasn’t anywhere close to as good as it is now in terms of basketball popularity and globalization of the game.”
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Team USA featured numerous NBA Hall of FamersCredit: Getty
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Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan were two of the biggest names who won gold in BarcelonaCredit: Getty
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Kerr thinks it’s impossible to compare eras despite the obvious similaritiesCredit: talkSPORT
“Obviously, Serbia and Croatia had been separated at that time, but prior to that, Yugoslavia would’ve been the biggest challenge for the ’92 team, so all those players were separated when the Soviet Union was broken apart,” he went on.
“That USA team was never threatened, so the difference is that yes, we have a star-studded team filled with Hall of Famers, but we have an altogether different challenge with great teams like Serbia, France, Germany, and Spain, assuming Spain qualifies.
“This is an entirely different competition than it was in 1992.”
Kerr’s right. In 1992, basketball just wasn’t the global sport that it is today.
Last season, NBA rosters featured a record 125 international players from 40 different countries.
Five of the last six MVPs winners were born overseas, while the other, Joel Embiid, was born in Cameroon and only became a US citizen in 2022.
Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo won back-to-back Most Valuable Players awards in 2019 and 2020 while Serbian Nikola Jokic won his third MVP in four years in 2024, beating fellow international players Luka Doncic (Slovenia) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada).
Compare that to 1992, when there were fewer than 20 international players in the NBA, and the cream of the crop were players like Detlef Schrempf and Tony Kukoc.
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Spurs phenom Wemby will star for FranceCredit: Getty
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NBA champion and three-time MVP Jokic is Serbia’s superstarCredit: Getty Images – Getty
The ’92 Dream Team overwhelmed and beat their opposition before a ball was tipped.
“I don’t know anything about Angola,” Charles Barkley famously said before the David vs Goliath matchup in ’92.
“But Angola’s in trouble,” he added, before elbowing a 174lb economics student who was playing for Angola in the 116-48 demolition.
During warm-ups, opposing teams were so in awe of the Dream Team that they would stop and ask members to pose for pictures with them.
NBA stars like Victor Wembanyama (France), Josh Giddey (Australia), Jamal Murray (Canada), Dennis Schroder (Germany), Rui Hachimura (Japan), Bol Bol (South Sudan) and Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) won’t afford that same courtesy to the current USA team.
The sport has certainly come a long way since the all-conquering Dream Team captured millions of hearts and minds across the globe over three decades ago.
Nowadays, the international basketball scene is one of parity and competitiveness, and Kerr knows his Team USA will have to be at their best if they’re take home the gold and avoid disaster.
Last summer, a different US team, still bursting with NBA stars, finished fourth at the 2023 FIBA World Cup which was won by Germany.
Kerr referenced that disappointment as a sobering reminder that Team USA are not invincible and that the rest of the world has the weapons to hurt them.
The Warriors head coach also needs to find the right combination of players before now and the first game of the Olympics against Serbia on 28 July.
An upcoming training camp in Las Vegas and exhibition games at the 02 in London (July 20 and 22) should provide an opportunity to experiment with different lineups and cement a starting five.
For Kerr, though, it’s less about lineups and more about getting every player to drop their ego and commit to the bigger goal of winning a gold medal.
“’I’m guessing that all of them are Hall of Famers,” he said.
“The idea is to find combinations that click, and two-way lineups, and ask all 12 guys to fully commit to winning the gold medal, no matter who’s playing.”
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