The United States men's basketball team has just lost their first Olympic game since 2004. Fans in the United States are free to freak out. That squad, which included current Team USA coach Gregg Popovich as an assistant coach, finished third after falling to Argentina in the quarterfinals. The US women's volleyball team will have another chance at gold.
Both teams were expected to win their respective games and advance to the next round. Instead, they were defeated by more experienced teams that used this opportunity to test out new lineups. Argentina put Tim Duncan on the floor instead of Manu Ginobili for the first time in years. The former San Antonio Spurs star was able to score only four points in 33 minutes. American fans may want to watch him fall down a lot during these games because that's when he makes his moves.
Spain beat America's favorite son Chicago Bulls to advance to the second round. This comes as no surprise because all European teams are supposed to be good. France even won the last World Cup!
After these results, some people think America should quit while they're ahead. Others say we should go undefeated until the end of the tournament. It's a controversial topic among Americans. But what about you? Would you like to see America stay involved in the Olympics?
However, the squad earned bronze despite losing three games against its opponents, the most ever lost by a United States men's Olympic basketball team... The Americans fell to France in their first game, lost to Yugoslavia and Belgium before defeating Egypt for third place.
This was also the first time that all five starters scored in double figures. The top three scorers were Moses Malone (22 points), Ralph Sampson (20 points) and Michael Jordan (19 points).
It is worth mentioning that during this tournament America's men's basketball team was considered one of the favorites to win the gold medal. They even had an 11-1 record after the first round of play.
However, they were defeated by a more experienced Yugoslav team that was not supposed to beat anyone. The U.S. players proved themselves though by coming back from down 0-3 to win 3 straight games. This is when people started calling them medal contenders.
After winning their next two games by large margins, they faced China in the semifinal match up. The U.S. players came out strong by taking an early lead but soon found itself behind 0-10.
After Krzyzewski stepped down in 2016, Team USA fell to France in the 2019 FIBA World Cup quarterfinals, placing seventh overall... United States men's national basketball team.
| Olympic Games | |
|---|---|
| Medals | Gold: (1954, 1986, 1994, 2010, 2014) Silver: (1950, 1959, 1982) Bronze: (1974, 1990, 1998, 2006) |
| FIBA AmeriCup | |
| Appearances | 9 |
Three US synchronized diving teams qualified for the Olympics via the 2004 FINA Diving World Cup, and the remaining divers qualified via the 2004 U.S. Olympic Diving Trials.
Larry Brown, the head coach of the squad, was a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. The squad was dubbed "one of the most disappointing American men's Olympic teams" after losing three games at the Olympics against its opponents, the most ever lost by a USA men's Olympic basketball team.
The United States is by far the most successful country in Olympic basketball, having won 15 of the 18 games in which its men's teams have competed, including seven consecutive victories from 1936 to 1968. In both the men's and women's competitions, the United States is the reigning champion.
In fact, the U.S. is so dominant that there are questions about how it could be beaten. The Americans' historic winning streak was ended by Spain in 2004, but since then they have continued to dominate, outscoring their opponents by more than 20 points per game over a two-year period starting in 2008.
Spain's only victory over the U.S. at these events came in 1992, when an all-American team lost to a Spanish squad led by Michael Jordan. Since then, however, America has dominated: eight straight wins for the U.S. Men's Team and 21 out of 22 games for the Women's Team.
Both of these teams have gone through changes since their last losses to Spain, with new players coming in to replace those who left or were unable to compete due to injuries. But whatever changes are made, they can't overcome America's dominance of basketball at such a high level.
Since the 1992 Games in Barcelona, when the combined team of former Soviet republics won 112 medals, Team USA has not lost the overall medal count. The US finished the 2020 Olympics with 41 silver and 33 bronze medals. Sign up for our daily Olympic newsletter for free: Today is a really Olympic day. See all the latest goings-on from Pyeongchang and beyond.
However, it's the first time since 1936 that America hasn't held at least one gold medal game. And while we know that American athletes will do everything they can to change that fact, there's always a chance that someone else could win more events than them.
The last time the US lost the overall medal count was 1996. Then-president Bill Clinton called it "a sad day for American sports." However, two years later the US rebounded with its best performance yet, winning 37 medals (13 gold). That's the most US medals ever except for these days.
So, yes, the US has lost the overall medal count before. But never since 1936 has it gone down without at least one gold medal game being played.
The United States of America has sent athletes to every contemporary Olympic Games celebration, with the exception of the 1980 Summer Olympics, when it spearheaded a boycott. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is the country's National Olympic Committee.
The United States and Russia faced off in a round-robin game at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The game was tied 2-2 after overtime before the Americans won an eight-round shootout, with T.J. Oshie scoring on 4 of 6 attempts.
The 1960 squad is the first U.S. men's hockey team to go through the Olympics without losing or tying a game. Nearly 60 years later, the '60s squad has lost its rightful place in history. "Jackie Riley used to get pretty agitated about that," winger Bill Cleary told Sports Collectors Digest. "He would say, 'That wasn't part of the deal.' But I think he understood why we did it." Indeed, Riley did more than understand - he agreed with his teammates that skipping over their loss to Canada in ice hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz was the only thing to do if you wanted to keep your perfect record intact.
The United States Hockey League (USHL) had just split into two divisions for the 1959-60 season, so the entire league went through an extensive rebuilding phase. As a result, few players were available for the Olympic squad, which included several college students who played limited roles with their respective teams. The only regular player on this team who had previous Olympic experience was goaltender Jim Craig, who had been a member of the silver medal-winning squad in 1952.
American sports writers criticized the decision to skip over one game, but most of them respected the fact that the Americans had never been defeated during their reign as world champions.
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