USA-Germany Men’s Basketball Was Interesting; Is That Good for the Olympics?

Less than two weeks ago, ESPN dared to compare the latest iteration of the United States’ Olympic men’s basketball roster to its entry at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

“A sense of awe has permeated throughout the first few days of Team USA training camp,” Tim Bontemps wrote. “Past Olympic rosters have boasted plenty of talent, but there’s a reason this group has been compared — at times favorably — to the fabled 1992 Dream Team.”

Ah yes, training camp. The only place where the best players in the world can train against the best players in the world. Since then, Team USA has been treated to opposition from South Sudan and Germany — notably, not the best in the world — and each game has been uncomfortably close.

In its latest near-debacle, Team USA needed LeBron James to score the game’s final 11 points in order to beat Germany 92-88 at London’s O2 Arena on Monday. It was the final exhibition game before the team heads to France ahead of Friday’s Opening Day ceremonies to kick off the Summer Olympics.

When the Games begin, the U.S. will be in a group with South Sudan, Puerto Rico and Serbia. It’s a fairly easy group outside of the Serbian entry featuring Nikola Jokić and Bogdan Bogdanović — or at least it should be. The worry, based on the last two exhibition games, is that the U.S. will lean heavily on a 39-year-old James and a jolt of adrenaline in order to fulfill its destiny.

Really, though, destiny is not merely a gold medal. Destiny is an Olympic run worthy of the narrative that the U.S. can only compete against itself. The best version of itself, of course, remains the 1992 “Dream Team” that outscored opponents by an average score of 117-74 and effectively made Larry Bird the most valuable sixth man in the sport’s history.

That kind of a run was never possible this year; the rest of the world is simply too good. Pundits merely needed to put down their red, white, blue, and rose-colored glasses to come to that realization. Perhaps it was for the best that Team USA cleared this up before Olympic play began.

On the other hand, any Olympic run in which Team USA is not among the last two teams standing is hardly a viewership bonanza. The tournament is a more compelling watch with the clear frontrunner running out front.

Team USA might be the obvious hero at home and villain abroad by virtue of its media darling status. It could uphold that reputation by running roughshod through the field en route to a gold medal. It could also lose to South Sudan on July 31. It almost happened last week.

Both of those possibilities are on the table after USA-Germany. We might be in for a suspenseful Olympic men’s basketball tournament, just not the kind of tournament we’ll be talking about in 30 years.