USA Olympic basketball team wins the gold after historic loss

Daniel Ebersole - Sophomore | Sports

The U.S.A. Men’s Basketball team has lost six times in the Olympics and have outscored their opponents by 28 points per game. The closest to those figures is the Soviet Union, with double the losses and half the point differential. These stats just graze the surface in illustrating the dominant present and past of the Stars and Stripes.

But going into the Olympics, they had lost 2 of their last 4 exhibition games. Sports Illustrated said before the Olympics, “Gone are the days of U.S. teams stomping… opponents.”

A legendary 25 game Olympic win streak was broken when France rallied to win in their tournament debut. Timothy Burke called it a “complete chokefest” on Twitter. This may seem like an extreme evaluation of one pool stage loss, but these are the expectations of American basketball. They must dominate every aspect of the game.

This loss put more pressure on Team USA since they disappointingly only achieved Bronze in 2004, which is the only year they didn't win gold since 1992.

Going into the competition, no one batted an eye to the idea that the U.S. could lose. According to Yahoo sports, the American’s chance to win were at -1000, but after the loss to France they dropped -250 at BetMGM. This set a physical representation of a country of fans holding their breath, preparing for disappointment.

What happened after this disastrous start in terms of American standards? They coasted in every game, winning 14+ up until the Gold Medal game.

From an International perspective, this tournament was just another dominant performance for the U.S.A. Those who know the standards of the American team will see this as an adversity filled, moment of unification.

Many fans thought they were overrated after the losses early in the season. They could not comprehend how this was no longer the same “gods of basketball.”. This was different.

Kevin Durant summed it up best after his performance in the Gold Medal game. "We had a lot of first-time guys on the team, new experience for everyone on the team, Covid, the kind of bubble we were in, no fans, no one expecting us to lose," he said. "To fight through this adversity against a great team like these guys ... to come together so fast -- it was beautiful to see, it was beautiful to be a part of."