The Golden Generation offers loving tribute to Argentina’s greatest basketball team

In the United States, the triumph of Argentina’s national men’s basketball team at the 2004 Olympics is treated more like an American failure than an Argentinian success. Many were quick to see the United States’ inability to secure a gold medal for only the third time in Olympic history — and for the first time since NBA players were allowed to participate — as a moral failing on their part, as a sign that something rotten and corrupt had taken hold of USA Basketball instead of as a triumph for the Argentinians who showcased phenomenal individual and collective talent in order to secure the gold medal, the nation’s first Olympic medal ever in basketball. It has been a rare case in which the victors did not write the proverbial history books.

Fortunately, a new documentary, The Golden Generation, recently produced by the Olympic Channel, takes care to rewrite this traditional narrative, placing the champions at the forefront. The documentary features interviews with several players from the Argentinian team as well as with opposing coaches and players such as Larry Brown, Gregg Popovich, and Carmelo Anthony and takes care to properly honor a team more known for dispatching the United States than for anything else and does a very good job of making sure their successes are highlighted.

The film is a great way to look back at forgotten moments in basketball history that nevertheless had massive repercussions moving forward. It highlights Ginobili’s improbable game-winner against Serbia in the preliminary round against Serbia and Montenegro as well as the spark that Walter Herrman gave the team off the bench in an elimination game against Greece. Great as they were, Argentina did not sail to a gold medal, but had to fight game after game to win the ultimate prize, earning several close and exciting victories along the way.

While Argentina’s gold medal-winning team is often treated like a one-man team due to the fact that Ginobili was the only member to become a star in the NBA, the Golden Generation also highlights those players who had less distinguished NBA careers such as Luis Scola, Fabricio Oberto, Carlos Delfino, and Andres Nocioni alongside those who never played in the NBA such as Gabriel Fernandez and Leonardo Gutierrez, showcasing that Argentina’s success was truly a team effort. The film also shows just how close these men were and that what defined the team as much as their success was their friendship forged by many years of playing together from youth to adulthood. It is truly delightful to hear the players recount these times in their own voices alongside a lot of great archival footage that will almost certainly be new to most viewers.

Interspersed between the recounting of the team’s formation and triumphs are the attempts of an artist, Leann Frizzera, to paint a massive mural that encapsulates the spirit of the team in honor of the 2018 Junior Olympics in Buenos Aires. Eventually, he decides to paint a four-headed monster operated by several gears in order to highlight the team’s collective spirit and how they worked in synchronicity in order to succeed, all alongside a smaller portrait of the team. Fabricio Oberto even lends a helping hand to the painting process at one point.

The Golden Generation also helps viewers to make sense of the changes in the basketball world that have happened since 2004. While only Ginobili went on to NBA stardom, Argentina’s triumphs at the 2004 Olympics had massive effects on the basketball world at large. It showed that the United States was fallible while also displaying the greatness of international basketball players which further opened doors for foreign players that had already been cracked open by legends such as Drazen Petrovic, Dirk Nowitzki, and Ginobili himself. You can also see the way that Argentina’s style of play, along with the influx of numerous international players, later came to influence the NBA. As journalist Mike Malone states in the film, “Everything about the way the NBA now plays — the passing, the complete unselfish play, the teamwork that distinguishes the greatest of NBA teams, that was being done [by Argentina.]”

The influence that Argentina’s success has had on basketball throughout the world, both practically and stylistically, is truly incalculable and The Golden Generation does a great job of paying loving tribute to that legacy and it is a must watch for all basketball fans.