The History of the 2004 United States men's Olympic basketball team
Going into the 2004 Athens games the US was once again favored to win the gold, even after much of the world had caught up to the US in basketball, and after many US players declined an invite to join team USA.
In the 2002 Worlds the US was embassed. The World Championships were held in Indianapolis and the US finished sixth, and the team probably should have fininished lower than that. But the had revamped its roster going into the Olympics, and the US did have a history of not caring about the World Championships.
The US had a young roster with the elder statesmen of the team being 29 year old Allen Iverson and 28 year old Tim Duncan. None of the US team had any international experience and this was going to cause problem. The roster also had a lot of promising youth and players who would become fixtures for Team USA basketball for decades to come in the form of Dwyane Wade, Carlos Boozer, Carmelo Anthony, and Lebron James.
One thing this US team lacked was outside shooting. The best shooter going into the tournament was probably Richard Jefferson. The other thing that would plague Team USA was attitude. The American team was full of players who were seen as selfish and self-centered and only cared about getting their stats and not the team overall.
Problems were apparent from the get-go. The US struggled in friendly exhabition games, nearly losing to Germany and only winning on a half court heave by Iverson at the buzzer. Than they got pummeled by Italy 95-78. It was the first exhabition game to a non-American team, that any US Olympic team had ever lost.
Head coach Larry Brown had a difficult time getting players to buy into the team concept. He had to suspend several players for a game because they stayed out too late after curfew.
Like previous Olympics 12 teams played a series of games before a knockout stage. The host country Greece got the automatic bid, and the World Champions Serbia got a bid as well. The previous Olympic for the first time did not get a bid, so in order to make the games the US had too win the Tournament of the Americas - which they did in 2003 - to get the America's automatic bid. Australia got Oceania's bid, Angona Africa's, China Asia's and Lithuania Europe's. The Americas runner up Argentina and third place finisher Puerto Rico also got bids, as did Europes next two best teams Spain and Italy.
The US was put into Group B with Lithuania, Greece, Puerto Rico, Australia and Angola.
Games were no longer played in 20 minute halfs, but starting in 2004 were played in four 10 minute long quarters.
The American's first game was against Puerto Rico, a team the US had beaten handily in exhabition without half its team because they were suspended. But the Olympics were different and Puerto Rico behind Carlos Arroyo came out firing, taking a 1 point lead after the first quarter. In the second quarter the Puerto Ricans shut down the American offense and only let the US score 7 points. The 7 points is the fewest points any team has scored in a quarter. The never could get close and lost their first Olympic game since 1988 and their first ever pool or group game by the score of 92-73. The 19 point defeat stands as the worst defeat in American history.
The US once again struggled vs the host nation Greece. The offense would bog down with Iverson and Stephon Marbury refusing to pass the ball and instead would take terrible isolation shots. The US lead 18-17 after one quarter, and 37-31 at the half. The second quarter was better as Lebron James was allowed to facilitate the offensive, but he was pulled out in the second half in favor of Iverson. The US eventually squeeked by with a 77-71 victory.
The USA once again came out flat vs Australia in the third game They trailed 31-21 after one, and 51-47 at the half. Going into the 4th qaurter the Aussies looked like they had the Americans beat, but Brown allowed James and Wade to play with Duncan and the team came roaring back for an 89-79 win.
Despite the win, it was clear that the US team was vulnerable, and there was a lot of talk about how the US was not even going to medal. Tensions rose so much in the Olympic village that FIBA and USA basketball both threatened to actually eject Team USA from the Olympic village.
Attitudes did not improve much going into the game vs Lithuania. The US actually had a decent first quarter for 2004 standards leading 26-23. The problems were in the second half as the US wings could not defend the Luthuanians shooters and the US was outscored 50-41 in the second half and ended up losing 94-90.
Going into the last game vs Angola there was a real chance the US was out of medal contention. The US needed to not only beat Angola, but beat them bad, in order to have the point differential to make it to the next round. The US came out hot and crushed Angola 89-53 to secure a bid to the next round.
Lithuania at 5-0 lead Group B, followed by Greece, Puerto Rico, the United States, Australia and Angola. The 4th place Group finish is still the worst in Team USA history.
Spain finished a top Group A and the Spanish were salivating at their chance to beat the United States. Spanish players were telling local media that they were not only going to beat the US, but they were going to crush them. Spain was favored by double digits in some sportsbooks.
The US held their own in the first quarter and it was tied at 25 all. The US took a 1 point lead going into the half. In the second half the Spanish scored the first 8 points and it appeared as the route was begining. But the US found their shot, something that had been missing all tournament, and Stephon Marbury had one of the greatest performances by an American player scoring 31 points and leading the US to a 102-94 upset of the Spanish team.
The euphoria was short lived however, as the US had to face Argentina - another team who believed they could win gold. The Argentines did not trash talk the Americas like the Spanish did, instead they methodically abused the US' defense and defeated the US 89-81, knocking the Americans out of gold medal contention.
Following the defeat most Americans had accept the fact that the 2004 team was not going to medal. Nobody gave them a chance vs Lithuania, a team who had been embassing them trash talking to them right in their face.
The bronze medal game was Lithuania was close, and for once the US did not let them get open. The US still could not defend a closed door however. The game was close going down the stretch but Lithuania missed several wide open threes and the US rebounded well and got scores on the other side and upset the Lithuanians 104-96 for the 2nd bronze medal in US history.
Argentina defeated Itlay in the gold medal game to win the countries first Olympic medal. Manu Ginobili was named the first MVP of the Olympics, and award that would disappear until 2021.
The 2004 Team USA is often regarded as the worst team the United States has ever fielded. Unlike the 1972, and 1988 teams who faced professional players and corrupt officiating, the 2004 harmed itself over and over again. The attitude of the players really soured fans and the players inability to accept criticism once they returned to the US made the situation even worse.
Marbury and Iverson were always seen as selfish players, and youngsters Carmelo Anthony and Lebron James were also seen that as well. As was Carlos Boozer, who at the time was the center of a huge controversy in the NBA. Boozer was a free agent with the Cavaliers, but they renounced his restricted free agent status to re-sign him, he instead turned around and signed a max contract with the Utah Jazz.
Only four players from this team would play for the US in the future; Anthony, Boozer, James and Wade. The rest either were not asked back (Iverson, Marbury, Okafor, and Jefferson) or flat out refused (Duncan, Stoudemire, and Odom).
The three losses are half of the total losses the US has ever suffered at the Olympic games, and the +37 point differential is the worst for any American team in any tournament.
The misery of the 2004 team lead to some changes for USA basketball. USA basketball would no longer just assemble teams a few weeks prior to the Olympics and World Championships, but would start building a pool of players to draw from that have international experience. USA basketball also created youth programs and started developing players as young as 10 years old.
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