Below are a few men's basketball scores from the 2016 Olympics in Rio:
USA: 119
China: 62
USA: 113
Australia: 95
USA: 113
Venezuela: 69
You don't have to be a fan of basketball, or sports for that matter, to see that the United States Men's Basketball team has dominated in this year's Olympics in Rio. The team is led by New York Knicks Powerhouse Carmelo Anthony, Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, as well as L.A. Clippers' Deandre Jordan and other dominant players in the National Basketball Association. With each game, this team finds a way to not only pull off a win, but to dominate their opponents by a large margin. Games become decided before the 4th quarter can even start, with each American face on the bench free of any worry.
So what's the problem here? After all, the Olympics are all about national pride. We watch every event pulling for our own, hoping that no other nation can defeat an American athlete in all events. What makes basketball so different?
The difference lies within the heart and soul of the Olympics, what these events are all about: the dream. Each and every year we find young swimmers, gymnasts, and runners shedding tears as they receive their gold medals for a hard fought victory, a victory that they themselves could easily describe as unimaginable in a million years. But here is basketball, a game invented in Springfield, Massachusetts by a simple American man in Dr. James Naismith. A game that we watch each and every year eagerly as sports fans, with an outcome that is almost entirely predictable come NBA Finals season. A game ruled by three or four individuals such as LeBron James and Stephen Curry, with no hopes for any team outside of the top four come the end of the regular season.
Then every four years, as it does, the Olympics come. Every nation assembles their own team full of its own inhabitants, sometimes including a handful of NBA stars such as Spain with brothers Marc and Pau Gasol of the NBA. While gymnastics and track and field prove to be any man or woman's opportunity at victory, basketball is struck by the all-NBA United States Men's team. Starting in 1992, the U.S. manages to construct a 'Dream Team' for every Olympics. Names like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson strike a chord with every knowledgeable sports fan, and it's certain almost none of these fans can name an Olympic basketball team since '92 better than these guys. How great is it that no team could match up against our boys since then? Not great at all. It's depriving the Olympics of what it is supposed to be all about: worldly competition. But then that same old question comes into play: Why should we care? I mean, we are winning, aren't we?
We are winning. Every. Single. Time. And with that guaranteed gold, comes the lack of chance. The missing factor of the dream itself in the phrase 'Dream Team'. How can we dream, how can our young and ambitious athletes dream, when we are guaranteed gold with NBA superstars? Men who have already accomplished so much in being drafted to the best basketball league in the world and many of them already having won Finals Championships and MVP awards in that league. Sure, you can argue that college basketball is no different, with schools like Duke and Kentucky dominating for decades. But the Olympics aren't about repeating magic from other teams in the NCAA and the national league. The Olympics are about assembling a group of top athletes, willing to lay it all on the line and compete to their full potential all in the name of their country. Basketball is the one Olympic sport that lacks chance, a gold medal that is there for whichever team wants to work the hardest for it. If you ask me, tossing Carmelo the ball for an open 3-pointer or swiping the ball with ease from a young Brazilian point guard for a Kyrie Irving fast-break doesn't sound like any odds are being overcame.
For whoever it may concern within the Olympic committee, give basketball back to the dreamers. To the kids on those college teams that may not find huge success in the NBA, or maybe no professional basketball career at all. Those kids deserve the chance to fight, scratch, claw, and earn medals. It brings excitement back to Olympic basketball. It delivers a longing to Americans watching back home, to see our team fight in close-score games for the victory. It redelivers meaning to the gold medal. Let the pros be who they are: professionals, working in the NBA and the NBA only. Remove the irony from superstar-filled 'Dream Teams' and make them true, with young Americans earning the opportunity to represent their country before their careers after college even comes into question. Bring the dream back to our team.
