It’s not weird to consider Team USA as the overwhelming favorite to win Gold in the Men’s Basketball event of the 2024 Paris Olympics. They have convincingly won against every opponent they faced in the tournament so far, with their latest foray being a one-sided beating of Brazil.
Many of the players in the lineup have had their moments to shine. From LeBron James to Derrick White, almost every member of the Team USA roster has shown fans who made the trip to Paris why they are the team opponents must be careful around.
However, everyone in Team USA knows better than to underestimate Serbia, their semi-final opponents. They have faced each other earlier in the tournament, so their opponents know how they operate. Moreover, the Serbs have Nikola Jokic running the show with a smattering of NBA talent supporting him.
While they are focused on their upcoming game, an NBA analyst issued a challenge to the squad for the remaining games of the competition.
Brian Windhorst challenges Team USA to dominate the remaining knockout games to prove their status over the Dream Team
A day before the Americans faced Brazil, NBA insider Brian Windhorst made an appearance on First Take and discussed Draymond Green’s take that the Dream Team is still better than the current Team USA iteration.
While he agreed that the Paris squad is still far from beating the Dream Team’s legacy, he added a huge caveat to this fact.
He mentioned that the knockout stages of the games will be considered as the most competitive in basketball history.
“There are 13 MVP awards represented in this tournament,” Windhorst said. “Eleven of the 15 guys who made All-NBA are still here competing for this [Olympic gold].”
He also mentioned that while Team USA averaged a 24-point margin before their Brazil game, they still had tough games ahead of them. Serbia was going to be an especially tough nut to crack.
He said that the way LeBron and the squad handle the remaining games of the tournament will determine whether they are worthy of being considered superior to the 1992 squad:
“Winning these next three games to me and how they perform in these three games will be what their case is. This is an absolute verifiable gauntlet that they’re trying to go through here.”
Serbia will be difficult to face in these do-or-die situations, but fans will be hopeful that the squad has enough about them to overpower their opponents the same way they’ve done the entire Olympic games.
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