The 2012 U.S.A. Olympic Basketball team is finally set. If not for some key injuries, this team could have easily been the second best team in Olympic history. But with injuries to Wade, Howard, Bosh, Aldridge, Rose, and now Griffin, this team welcomes a lot of new players to the Olympic stage that may not have made the team had those players not pulled out of the competition. Despite all of injuries, this team is still very talented, but are they a better team than the 2008 Olympic team?
There are only 5 players returning from last Olympics (LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Deron Williams). So let’s take a look at the rest of each team’s respective roster.
Position 2008 2012
Center Dwight Howard Tyson Chandler
Forward Carlos Boozer Kevin Love
Forward Chris Bosh Anthony Davis
Forward Tayshaun Prince Kevin Durant
Guard Dwyane Wade Andre Iguodala
Guard Michael Redd James Harden
Guard Jason Kidd Russell Westbrook
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Unless you see something that I don’t see, the teams are very close. You can say that the 2008 team would have the advantage inside, which is definitely true, but look at the perimeter players and the advantage clearly goes to this year’s team. All 5 players returning are better players now than they were 4 years ago, with the exception of Kobe. And you add Kevin Durant to the team. I understand that you lose the most dominant big man in the game, but you add the second best player in the league. And the team lists Durant as a guard. That’s right, Durant is 6-9, and he will be guard at the Olympics. Good luck to any guard that is going to try to cover him.
It would definitely be an interesting game to watch, but this year’s team would win. LeBron is playing so well right now, that even the 2008 LeBron wouldn’t be able to defend him. Chandler is a good defender, and he would get plenty of help from Love on the glass, but I’m not sure how well Davis would do against Howard. There is absolutely no way that he would play in the post against Howard, but his length can definitely cause some problems for other players.
Davis won’t get a lot of playing time in these Olympics, but this is a great experience for him. He gets to play with the best players in the world, and hopefully learn some tricks from them. The most important thing that he needs to learn is toughness. He needs to be able to bang down low with the best of them if he wants to make it big in the NBA.
The defense of this 2012 team is what separates them the most though. James, Chandler, Iguodala, and Davis are the players that known for their defensive prowess, but that doesn’t mean that the other players are poor defenders. Carmelo can be a good defender when he actually cares, aka not the regular season. Chris Paul is one of the best defensive PGs in the game, and given all of the other players’ athleticism, they all have the skills to be great defenders.
This team also has an experience factor that the 2008 did not possess. Yes, they did win the Gold Medal in 2008, but 5 of those players are back. And 5 more players are returning from the 2010 US World Championship team that won Gold. But they haven’t won Gold in 2012 yet, and if they don’t the 2008 team is automatically a better team. It doesn’t matter how good you look in theory, it matters if you win the games.
A team that looked good on paper and in the games was the 1992 Dream Team. Kobe recently said that he thinks this year’s Olympic team could beat the Dream Team. Jordan answered those remarks by laughing. That’s right, he laughed at Kobe. And that’s exactly what he should have done. Kobe needs to focus on winning the Olympics, rather than a game that could only be played if time travel existed.
But let’s pretend that time travel does exist, and the 2012 team travels back to 1992 to play the Dream Team. I bet 1992 Jordan probably laughed at them too. The Dream Team has 15 total MVP awards among all of their players, but only 9 of those were before the 1992 Olympics. This year’s team has a total of 4. Three from LeBron, and one from Kobe. Granted Magic and Bird were finished with their careers at this point, and way past their primes, but they could still play.
The most intriguing part of this game would be the match ups. LeBron against Jordan is an obvious one that would attract a lot of fans, but the match up that I would love to see is Love against Barkley. They are two of the best rebounders of all-time, and they would be going head to head against each other. Barkley won the NBA MVP in the 92-93 season, so he was at his prime, so he would have the advantage. But it would be awesome to watch those two go at it down low.
Along with their 15 MVPs, the Dream Team consisted of the all time leader in assists, the player with the second most career points, and Christian Laettner. Laettner is actually the only player on that team that is not a Hall of Famer.
It isn’t that this year’s team is a bad representation of the US, but it just shows that the Dream Team was just that, a “dream.” Looking back now, it is unbelievable that all of those players were able to be together on one team. A team that won all 8 games in the 1992 Olympics by 32+ points, and scored 103+ points in all of those games. This team was the best, and it will take a lot more than this 2012 roster to change that fact.