USA Basketball: The Weight of Expectation

When playing for Team USA in the Olympics, it can feel like a no-win situation for a professional basketball player. The United States men’s team has won the dominant share of gold medals in the competition, taking home the top prize 16 times, silver once in 1972 and bronze twice in 1988 and 2004. But ever since America brought the pros in to play in 1992, beginning with the star-studded Dream Team, it has been more pressurized.

USA basketball players, from left, Tim Hardaway, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen show their gold medals during the presentation ceremony at the Sydney Olympics on 1 October 2000.

If Team USA wins, it’s expected. If they lose, it’s a failure. That is the same for the women’s side, too, though they’ve been even more dominant than the men through the decades.

International basketball, says two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich, “the pressure is elevated to a level that is really high, especially for Americans.”

“There’s stress”: USA Basketball has always faced unique pressure at Olympics

Not only are expectations sky-high, but preparation can be minimal, Tomjanovich notes. While many other international teams are coalescing throughout the year, NBA and WNBA players are competing against one another in their respective leagues. Their teams usually only come together in a matter of weeks to play in the Olympics. This year’s teams set for Paris, for example, have never played together as 12-person units.

 Aerial view of Paris, host city for the 2024 Olympics.

For the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Tomjanovich’s team was loaded with the likes of All-Stars Alonzo Mourning, Vince Carter, Gary Payton, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd, Antonio McDyess, Tim Hardaway, and more. At one point, though, Mourning left the team during the tournament to go back to the United States for the birth of his child only to return a few days later. “Talk about jet lag,” says Tomjanovich, who recently won the NBA’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement award. “Talk about strain on the body!”

 Vince Carter posterizes the 7ft 2in Frenchman Frédéric Weis, leaping over him and embarrassing him on a global stage.

But 2000 wasn’t all highlights for the coach and his team. The American men won their first six games handily, but in the semi-finals, they played Lithuania in a contest that was too close for comfort, despite Lithuania missing their legendary player, Arvydas Sabonis, who had retired. After the US went up big in the first half, Lithuania fought back in the second. With a minute left, the score was 80-80. Then with 43 seconds left, McDyess fouled a three-point shooter in the act. But Lithuania could only hit a single free throw. Carter scored next, putting the US up by a point. Then the Americans were awarded two more foul shots but Garnett uncharacteristically missed both. McDyess, however, got the rebound off the second and put it back in for the game’s winning bucket. In the next round, the US defeated France for gold.

 Antonio McDyess was the guy who put the ball in the basket, says Tomjanovich.

Antonio McDyess was the guy who put the ball in the basket, says Tomjanovich. When I went out to congratulate him, he was still hyperventilating because he was the guy who fouled the three-point shooter and he didn’t want to be the goat. [The NBA players] had never lost at that time and nobody wanted to be on the team that lost for the first time.

The prospect of being the first team of male pros to lose in the Olympics was never discussed outright but everyone could feel that tension, that pressure. The world had already gotten so much better since 1992. If you didn’t respect the other teams, the coach says, they would hurt you.

 LeBron James, one of the biggest names in hoops, is set to suit up for the men’s team in Paris.

After the 2000 Games, Tomjanovich remembers writing a scouting report and telling Olympic officials like Jerry Colangelo that future squads needed to be assembled cohesively, with rebounders, shooters, defenders—not just as a collection of stars.

The USA basketball players, from left, Tim Hardaway, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen show their gold medals during the presentation ceremony at the Sydney Olympics on 1 October 2000.

 USA Basketball has always faced unique pressure at Olympics.