Will the Real Team USA Please Stand Up?

We are in the home stretch of the Olympic Games. We are approaching the gold medal game for one of the most polarizing Olympic sports for the USA, men’s basketball. Over the last few decades, it’s been a given that the United States would hands down, unequivocally win the gold. Team USA did hit a rough patch in the early 2000s but “Redeemed” itself (pun intended) in 2008. These games have been a tad bit different. Team USA did the unthinkable during the exhibition games – they lost. They actually lost twice. Then they won two. Then lost to France. Now they are headed to the gold medal game. This team is taking me on a rollercoaster ride. Please, will the real Team USA please stand up?

This Roster Is the Truth

The most exciting thing about Team USA in the lead-up to the Olympics is the formation of the roster. Since they have started using professionals, it has always been a star-studded lineup. You may not get every megastar ballplayer from the United States, but you get some bad men that should be able to bring home the gold. This year’s roster is no different. Team USA’s roster has a nice mix of superstars, young stars, and role players. This squad is led by Kevin Durant, Dame Lillard, Devin Booker, and Jayson Tatum. Those four alone are an All-NBA Team. To add a little gravy on top of this, you have NBA Champs Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday on the team too. This team is also led by one of the greatest coaches ever in Gregg Popovich. This sounds like a team!

Emotional Rollercoaster

Vivian Green has a song called “Emotional Rollercoaster“. It’s about the ups and downs of a relationship. I often have it playing in the background as I watch Team USA. Watching this team isn’t good for your health. This year, Team USA lost two exhibition games to Nigeria and Australia. While both nations have NBA players on their respective rosters, they should not be able to compete with this team. To compound matters, they lost to France in the first game of the preliminary round.

Since then, they’ve looked like the team I expected. They blew out Iran, dominated the Czech Republic, beat Spain, and extracted payback on Australia. They are looking like the team everyone expected to see. I know a lot went into why they may have struggled early on. It’s hard to get team chemistry in a few practices like they were asked to do. They also didn’t have the entire team intact because the NBA Finals were later this year. I think this uber-talented group of ballplayers finally decided to dominate.

Going for the Gold

While Team USA has had detrimental low points this Olympic Games, they have turned it around too. They took some questionable “L’s”, but have seemed to turn things around. So will the real Team USA please stand up? Is it the team from the exhibition games, or is it the team we’ve seen over the last few days? I pick the latter. Team USA has a rematch with France for the gold. I don’t see them taking France likely. Even though France is one of the more sophisticated international programs, they shouldn’t stand a chance with this team. I am predicting Team USA to win by double digits; another crisis avoided, and all is right with the basketball world!

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