Dream Team, a Soviet block and relentless American women: Best of Olympic basketball
Olympic basketball has scripted some epic moments in its history. From Michael Jordan’s Dream Team winning gold to the Dunk of Death. Relive them here.
Basketball was introduced in the Olympics at the Berlin 1936 Games as a men’s event only. Women’s basketball made its debut much later at Montreal 1976.
Along the way, the sport recorded several memorable moments at the Summer Games; from the 1992 USA Dream Team winning Olympic gold to Argentina clinching their first gold medal in 2004.
Here’s a look at some of the finest chapters from Olympic basketball history.
The Dream Team
The USA and basketball share an unbreakable bond. The sport is played across the country producing some of the best players from the National Basketball Association (NBA) league, and the superstars they produce naturally make them favourites at any international tournament.
None of them may come close to the United States men's team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. It was the first time that NBA players were allowed to play in the Summer Games.
Dubbed the Dream Team - the USA men named Michael Jordan, Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing and Scottie Pippen among others for the basketball tournament in Barcelona.
Needless to say, the USA finished top of Group A with an unbeaten record in five games. They then comfortably beat Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Croatia enroute a marauding gold medal run - in which they had scored more than 100 points each game.
The Summer of the Women
The 1996 Atlanta Olympics is sometimes referred to as the ‘Summer of the Women’ in the USA, with several of their female athletes winning golds at their home Games. The USA women’s basketball team was possibly the icing on the cake.
The USA women had won golds at the 1984 and 1998 Olympics but only won bronze in 1992.
At the 1996 Atlanta Games, they had veteran Teresa Edwards and stars like Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley and Sheryl Swoopes. They topped Group B with 10 points, remaining unbeaten going into the knockout phase.
The Americans then beat Japan in the last eight and Australia in the semis.
In the final, the USA women’s basketball team faced Brazil, also on an unbeaten run. The USA pulled off a 111-87 victory to reclaim the gold medal. Since then, the USA women have won every Olympic gold medal - with Lisa Leslie holding the Olympic record for being part of four consecutive Olympic gold-medal winning teams.
A Soviet Shock
Since the inclusion of men’s basketball at the Olympics, the USA men’s team won every gold medal on offer. It was no surprise - the game was born in their country and it regularly produced the best players.
However, the American juggernaut was stopped at the 1972 Munich Olympics by the erstwhile Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had won the silver medal at the 1952, 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics, each time losing to the USA in the final.
At the 1972 Olympics, the USA were unbeaten coming to the final and were expected to sweep the gold once more. The Soviet Union had other plans though.
The Soviet Union led the USA 26-21 at half-time but the Americans fought back to level the scores and eventually took the lead through Doug Collins’ two free throws. With just one second left and the USA leading by a point, the Soviet Union called for a time-out.
When the game resumed, the USA started celebrating when the clock ticked down but an official asked for the final three seconds to be replayed due to a referring error.
The Soviet Union’s Alexander Belov then hooped one through to condemn the USA men to a first loss in an Olympic final.
The Dunk of Death
During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a strong French side dominated the basketball courts thanks to a 7’ 2” centre Frederic Weis, who controlled the defence. But what followed in the final group stage match between France and the USA was astonishing.
Standing at 6’6”, Vince Carter, also known as ‘The Half Man, Half Amazing’ stole the ball from half-court, made one dribble and came up on Weis, who was the last man left to beat.
Vince Carter was known for his air-time but what happened next shocked the 8,477 people at The Dome. He took control of the ball and rose, and kept rising, way over the head of Frederic Weis and dunked the ball.
It was a feat of immense athleticism and the French dubbed it ‘le dunk de la morte’ - ‘The Dunk of Death’. The USA won that group match 106-94.
Of course, the USA men went on to win their third consecutive Olympic gold, beating France once again in the final.
El Alma in Athens
The 2004 Athens Olympics heralded the arrival of Argentina’s golden generation in men’s basketball.
In Athens, the ‘El Alma’ stepped up to the task of bringing home the continent's first gold in basketball. But the task wasn’t easy as Argentina had to overcome the unbeaten and star-studded 12-times world champions USA, something they had done before.
Argentina had shown their basketball prowess at the 2002 FIBA World Cup, winning silver and beating the USA in the preliminary round.
The star for Argentina at Athens 2004 was Manu Ginobili - who scored the winning point against Serbia and Montenegro in their first game.
Argentina went on to lose to Spain and New Zealand in the group and only qualified for the last eight as the third-placed team in Group A. They swept aside home team Greece in the quarter-finals and came up against the USA in the semis.
The USA had already suffered losses to Puerto Rico and Lithuania in Group B and so were not the invincibles they were considered to be. Yet they began as favourites.
However, Manu Ginobli rose to the occasion again. Scoring a game-high 29 points, the Argentine led his country to an 89-81 win over the Americans.
Argentina then beat Italy 84-69 to win the gold medal while the USA narrowly beat Lithuania to claim bronze.