I feel only the smallest tinge of guilt, as an American, for having never really rooted for USA men’s basketball. I figure: after the 1992 Dream Team, their victories are just another trophy in a distant, dusty cabinet. America’s defeats, however, end up pushing the global skill level of basketball up to a new degree. A weaker Team USA makes for a stronger NBA. A stronger, more skilled game around the world.
I’ve built this (admittedly convoluted) theory off of the results of a single basketball game. But it’s not hyperbole to say that we are still feeling the ripples of that game: Team USA’s 2004 loss to Argentina in the Olympic semifinals.
This game triggered the arrival of Argentina into the NBA awareness. Once an undiscovered land — are they Euros? oh, they aren’t? — teenage Argentine prospects are now drafted without anyone really noticing. On a bigger level, the loss was the catalyst for Team USA soul-searching. The immediate result was the phenomenally focused “Redeem Team” of 2008. The best Team USA since the 1992 original, 2008’s roster was built around useful team players like Jason Kidd instead of just throwing the NBA’s beefiest stat lines together.
Read More: Opening the Vault — Unedited highlights from the April 2000 Issue of SLAM
Team USA in 2004 has been retroactively condemned for being selfish. Seeing how time has sorted out the squad’s starting backcourt — Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson — this is to be expected. Against Argentina, though, selfishness is not what dooms the team. American Head coach Larry Brown had, months before, won the NBA championship with the street-smart kibbutz of the Detroit Pistons. The team also starts communally-minded Lamar Odom, and the primary offensive option is — for real — Tim Duncan on the block. The team’s greatest strength over Argentina is the thankless task of offensive rebounding — and USA does nearly tip-in their way to victory.
No: the problem with Team USA is that, tactically, the basketball looks medieval to a pair of modern eyes. There is certainly the allergic reaction to the three-point line — only 20’6” from the basket — which is the biggest fault of Marbury and Iverson. With about two minutes left on the clock and Argentina’s lead just under double digits, both guards still dart into the key to try and make up the deficit.
Team USA really loses the game with a totally discordant defensive effort. This seems like an impossibility, given the presence of both Brown and assistant Gregg Popovich, but it happened. A high screen-and-roll from Argentina basically guarantees the South Americans an open three-pointer, with the North American defense sagging back into the key for a drive that will never come.
There are also some serious problems with roster construction. We are told that Dwyane Wade, fresh off of his rookie season, is subbed into the game as a defensive stopper against Manu Ginobili. Maybe the move doesn’t seem so odd now, knowing that Wade was then penning the first chapters of a Hall of Fame career. But remember that there is no room for genuine defensive maestros Justise Winslow or Nerlens Noel — or even all-round masters like Karl-Anthony Towns — on America’s 2016 roster.
Most remarkable, though, is the lack of confidence, swagger in Team USA. The invincibility that was present just four years earlier in Le Dunk de la Mort is nowhere. Argentina plays with the lead for most of the game, and USA has no offensive weapons as effective as Fabricio Oberto’s defense-shifting passing or Ginobili’s shot-creating. Argentina does not steal the game from the Americans. There is the unavoidable feeling instead that Argentina — who did not qualify for the previous Olympics — are the favorites who took care of business like they expected to do.
Should I Re-Watch This Game?: No. There are a few revelatory assists by Argentina, but mostly the game is a slog. Instead, watch this relaxed interview between Popovich and a retired Oberto, who were united in San Antonio from 2005-2009. After discussing the essays of Christopher Hitchens and immigration to America in the early 20th century — in addition to dropping some serious restaurant recommendations — Popovich opens up about losing this very game:
"It was a very difficult loss. But it was a strange feeling. Because at the same time, I was so thrilled for you guys because of what you had accomplished, and what you had come through, and the camaraderie and the group that you had. You were the best team. It wasn’t luck, it wasn’t one-in-a-million. You may feel like that, but you guys were the best basketball team at that point, at that time. And the joy that I felt for you guys was tremendous."
But just in case you change your mind:
Nostalgia. Drink it in.