![]() 2001 World Championships in Athletics Edmonton, Canada.1999 World Championships in Athletics Sevilla, Spain.1997 World Championships in AthleticsĚthens, Greece.1995 World Championships in Athletics Gothenburg, Sweden.1993 World Championships in Athletics Stuttgart, Germany.1991 World Championships in Athletics Tokyo, Japan.1987 World Championships in Athletics Rome, Italy.1983 World Championships in Athletics Helsinki, Finland.1980 World Championships in Athletics Sittard, Netherlands.1976 World Championships in Athletics Malmo, Sweden.Kevin Garnett, Alonzo Mourning, Allan Houston, Jason Kidd and Gary Payton were also key players on this roster. guard Ray Allen said at the time.Ĭarter and Allen both scored 13 points in an 85-75 victory over France to secure Team USA's third straight gold medal. "If the ball went in, it would have haunted us for the rest of our lives," U.S. Sarunas Jasikevicius missed a three-pointer at the buzzer, and the U.S. After defeating Russia in the quarterfinals, the Americans narrowly avoided an enormous upset at the hands of Lithuania. had closer games against Lithuania (85-76) and France (106-94). Pool play included comfortable wins over China, Italy and New Zealand, but the U.S. While the dunk highlighted Team USA's undefeated run to gold, the journey had a few challenges. Remembered as the Dunk of Death , Carter leaped over France's 7'2" center Frederic Weis in the final game of the preliminary round. In addition to Durant, Team USA leaned on Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard, Zach LaVine, Devin Booker and Bam Adebayo.Īnd the 2000 Sydney Olympics also had that Vince Carter dunk. Durant scored 29-plus points for the third straight gold-medal game, securing his place as the greatest men's player in U.S. ![]() However, the Kevin Durant-led Americans found an answer to win both games relatively comfortably and reach the final. Spain built an early 10-point lead in the quarterfinals, and Australia jumped out to a 15-point advantage during the semis. The uneasiness lingered into the knockout stage. While the team cruised past Iran (120-66) and the Czech Republic (119-84), the early loss sparked doubts of what Team USA would accomplish in Japan. And the Tokyo squad simply could not live up to that. Several iterations of Team USA have rolled over its competition, which set and sustained a remarkably high Olympic bar. Since the Dream Team stood atop the podium in 1992, Athens is the only Olympics in which the U.S. Team USA then managed a 104-96 win over Lithuania in the bronze-medal game. fell to Argentina 89-81 in the semifinals. basically just survived host Greece (77-71) and Australia (89-79) before Lithuania handed the Americans a second loss-the first time the United States had ever dropped two games in a single Olympics.įollowing a 102-94 quarterfinal win over Spain, the U.S. Puerto Rico rolled to a 92-73 victory in the opener, and the U.S. Yet from the very beginning in Athens, the team struggled. The roster had Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan, versatile wings Shawn Marion and Lamar Odom and rising stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. Relative to any other country in the basketball world, a bronze medal would be somewhere in the range of incredible and acceptable.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |