During the Dream Team era of Team USA, with superstars and NBA icons like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird leading the way, the star-studded American squad would crush the competition on the international level, and at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, it cruised to a gold medal.
Back then, while Jordan and company were competing against the world’s best basketball players in Spain, Team USA was blowing out teams by an average of almost 44 points, an insane margin of victory to keep up over the course of a tournament.
Unfortunately for the United States, the rest of the world has caught up in terms of skill and prowess on the basketball court, and some of the best and brightest players in the NBA today hail from overseas, like Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic.
With the gap closing in on the Americans, former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal recently said that he won’t be impressed by U.S. victories unless they are blowouts.
“If you don’t win by 20, I’m not impressed,” O’Neal said, via “The Big Podcast.”. “… You got the best players in the world on one team. If they win, they’re supposed to win. But if they don’t win by 20, people are gonna talk about ’em.”
“If you don’t win by 20 I’m not impressed.”
– Shaq on Team USA 😳
Watch the full episode here: https://t.co/HpE4j4EDhf pic.twitter.com/FsIpyv8VoH
— The Big Podcast (@bigpodwithshaq) August 2, 2024
In its first game of the 2024 Paris Olympics, against Serbia, Team USA won by 16, 100-84, which isn’t all that bad, but Jokic’s squad never seemed to have much of a chance.
In the second game that counted for the Americans, LeBron James and company had a rematch with South Sudan, who lost by only one point in the final seconds of the teams’ exhibition matchup.
Team USA avenged that close game by winning by 19, 103-84, but still under O’Neal’s threshold.
The Americans get another chance at a blowout against Puerto Rico in group play before moving on to the tougher elimination rounds.
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