A Look Back at Why the 2004 Olympic Team Was a Disaster and an Important Mistake
When you think of the US in Olympic basketball you think of dominance. That’s not shocking as we have dominated the Olympics since 1992, except for one time. The beautiful disaster that is the 2004 US Olympic basketball team.
With the US Olympic camp underway it’s time to look back at the reason why the US is dominant again. The 2004 team that won bronze and was a complete flop in the Athens Olympics. More importantly it changed the way the US approaches the Olympics and as someone who loves international basketball, it’s great to be this damn good again.
The 2004 team showed the USOC exactly how not to build a team. That bronze medal team featured big name guys, Stephon Marbury, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan and young LeBron James, Carmelo and D-Wade. The problem here is the obvious, the US just put together guys with big names and didn’t have any sort of team feel. They didn’t have a shooter, they didn’t have a passing guard, they had two guards starting that just wanted to drive and play in the midrange. Of course this was coached by Larry Brown, who refused to play the younger guys as well and tried to run the offense through Marbury and Iverson.
On top of that it’s the one lone blackmark on Duncan’s incredible legacy. After his retirement a couple weeks ago people started to rattle off all his accomplishments, but somehow this is never mentioned. He was one of the leaders of the team and one of the five best players ever, yet couldn’t get past a bronze playing for Team USA.
After the embarrassment of getting our asses kicked by Puerto Rico and going 5-3 in Athens, US Basketball hired Jerry Colangelo as director in 2005. He immediately demanded a three-year commitment from players, building a team, like you know, a team. They would get used to playing with each other and have a coach that would be around for more than one cycle.
After that the second thing Colangelo did was rectify the mistake the 2004 team made, by not having a surplus of small forwards that weren’t great shooters. He brought in the likes of Michael Redd, who didn’t play much but was there in case a shooter was needed. He brought back Kobe and Jason Kidd to be the leaders of the team.
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The other thing Colangelo did that doesn’t get enough respect is building up the player pool, which we’ve seen the importance of the last two Olympics. It gives USA Basketball the ability to pick and choose, while still having them compete. It plays into his whole 3-year commitment, with different guys going to the FIBA World Cup compared to the Olympics. It’s why guys like Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, DeMarcus Cousins and DeMar DeRozan some experience playing the international game.
So while a lot of people will mock the 2004 team – and rightfully so – it ended up being the perfect mistake for USA Basketball. If you’re watching the next couple days you’ll see it pay off with the camp in Las Vegas.