The United States has owned men’s basketball at the Olympic Games. Going back to the first time that the sport happened at the Olympics in 1936, the Americans have won 16 gold medals and 19 medals in total — the only time they were kept off the podium was in 1980, when the United States boycotted the Olympics altogether.
The tournament changed altogether in 1992, when NBA players became eligible to participate at the Olympics for the first time. Of course, that summer ended up being pretty notable, as the Dream Team went to Barcelona, steamrolled the competition, and became a cultural phenomenon. Since that time, the United States has only failed to win a gold medal once in men’s basketball.
Now, the rest of the world is starting to catch up to America in the sport, and while the 2024 team is loaded, the men’s basketball competition in Paris this summer is shaping up to be perhaps the greatest international basketball tournament of all time. Before that begins, we wanted to look at the eight teams the U.S. has sent to the Olympics since 1992 (including this year’s squad) and rank them from worst to best.
8. 2004
They came in third. Every other team that the U.S. has sent to the Olympics has won gold. Putting them last is pretty easy, even if it’s fun to look back on their roster — which featured Tim Duncan, Allan Iverson, and each of LeBron/Melo/Wade coming off of their rookie seasons — and wonder how they struggled as much as they did.
7. 2000
Despite not being the most talented roster the U.S. has ever sent over, this team still went undefeated en route to a gold, although a 2-point semifinal win over Lithuania nearly changed that. Still, Vince Carter was great (and authored the greatest in-game dunk in history), Kevin Garnett and Alonzo Mourning were imposing in the frontcourt, and the 1-2 backcourt punch of Jason Kidd and Gary Payton was not fun to play against.
6. 2020
They lost their opener at the Olympics to a really good France team and then did not lose again, which included getting their revenge on the French in the gold medal game. The 1-2 punch of Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum was a nightmare for opposing teams to deal with — seriously, how are you supposed to deal with KD in international play? — and while they had their issues towards the end of the roster and with center depth, those ended up not being a huge problem in the end.
5. 1996
Being the team after the Dream Team was a hard act to follow, and yet the 1996 squad managed to do that incredibly well. They went undefeated in the tournament and stomped Yugoslavia in the gold medal game thanks to a monster performance from David Robinson. The Admiral was second on the team in scoring behind Charles Barkley, with Reggie Miller and Scottie Pippen also averaging double-digits. Not bad!
4. 2024
This is all a matter of projecting, but even if they don’t win a gold medal due to how loaded the rest of the field is, the 2024 team is absolutely ridiculous. We saw in their opener that this team has the potential to be excellent, as the addition of Kevin Durant to the roster is just unfair. We’ll possibly revisit this at the end of the tournament, because with how talented they are and how good the rest of the field is, there’s a chance they crack the top-3 with an especially dominant performance in Paris.
3. 2012
This group wasn’t as good as the first two as you got farther down the roster, but going into the Olympics with Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant is one heck of a luxury. They also beat the best team Spain has thrown out there in the gold medal game, in what is the best game any team on this list has ever played.
2. 2008
The level of competition they went up against was greater than the Dream Team. It’s not like this was a team of slouches, either, as the starting five featured the three best players on earth at the time (LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade), along with Olympic killer Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard when he was still at the height of his powers. They were dominant, and if you want to put them above the Dream Team, I would not blame you.
1. 1992
The question at the top is simple: Redeem Team or Dream Team? For my money, it’s more 1A and 1B than 1 and 2, but I’m giving the slight edge to the Dream Team because their roster was just that ridiculous. I do think it’s worth dinging them a little for the fact that the level of competition wasn’t especially high, as the rest of the world was nowhere near as competitive in men’s basketball at this point. But even if it was, I fully expect that this team would have cruised to a gold.
