MIES (Switzerland) - Different time, different circumstances, same name.
Dream Team.
That's what USA coach Steve Kerr, in the final episode of Court of Gold on Netflix, anointed the group of players that won the Olympic gold medal last summer in France.
It was the same nickname given to the American superstars that took the world by storm in 1992 at the Barcelona Games that launched a new era of international basketball.
"I think it’s Dream Team II," Kerr says.
"It’s not Michael, Magic and Larry, but it’s LeBron, Steph and KD. The circumstances have completely flipped. We got all these amazing teams out there who can beat us. And yet, we still have our Dream Team on the floor."
If the collection of superstars in the Dream Team at the '92 Games was far and away better than the competition and rolled to the gold medal, the 2024 Dream Team had to pull out all stops to reach the top of the podium, especially at the end in a come-from-behind win over Serbia in the Semi-Finals and a hard-fought victory over France in the Gold Medal Game.
It started with Michael, Magic and Larry dominating the world and it ended with Steph, LeBron and Kevin fending the world off.
This USA team was not surprised, either.
LeBron James appreciated the challenge since he'd been a part of the 2004 team that settled for the bronze medal at the Athens Olympics. Teams around the world, he knew, had only grown stronger and presented significant hurdles in France.
In episode one, USA Men's National Team Managing Director Grant Hill speaks to the players at the start of training camp in Las Vegas and says: "We're at an interesting time in the game of basketball right now. You have three, four, five teams that are contenders. More importantly, three, four, five teams that believe they can win a gold medal."
The world was in awe of the '92 team, so much so that some opposing players wanted photographs with the USA players before and after games.
In 2024, it was different. The respect for the USA remained yet as Hill said, several other teams believed they could beat them.
Germany had won against the USA in the Semi-Finals at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023 en route to the title, and Canada had knocked them off in the Third-Placed Game. Even Lithuania, who didn't qualify for the Olympics, beat the USA in the Second Round.
So what happened in France?
USA, as expected, had a couple of scares and needed certain Hall of Famers Stephen Curry and LeBron James to have two of the best games of their international careers to save them.
Serbia led USA by 17 points in the Semi-Finals, and 13 entering the fourth quarter, only for the heroics of Curry and James to rescue them.
Curry finished with 9 3-pointers and 36 points while James had 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists as USA won, 95-91.
Then in the pulsating Gold Medal Game against France, Curry had 24 points after making 8 3-balls and James scored 14 points and dished out 10 assists as USA prevailed, 98-87.
"We had to fight and scrap and claw just to get out of there with a gold medal," Kerr says in the final episode.
"It started with Michael, Magic and Larry dominating the world and it ended with Steph, LeBron and Kevin fending the world off."
FIBA