There are just hours to go before the opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Team USA basketball is hoping to claim yet another gold medal there and regain its sense of world dominance.
The United States failed to medal in last summer’s FIBA World Cup, which caused a number of NBA stars and superstars, including the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James and Anthony Davis, to quickly commit to playing in this summer’s Olympics. While Team USA won all of its five exhibition games, it looked vulnerable at times.
It fell behind by a sizable margin and almost lost to South Sudan, and it needed 25 points from LeBron James to claim victory. James then scored its last 11 points to allow it to win against Germany in its final tune-up.
After the win over Germany, he showed good leadership by telling his teammates that the adversity they faced was good for them.
Battle tested. ⚔️
Inside the 🇺🇸 #USABMNT huddle post-game with LeBron James. pic.twitter.com/hf6FzV3kJX
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 22, 2024
There are plenty of potential pitfalls for Team USA in the upcoming Olympics. While plenty expect it to come away with the gold medal, at least one other team could prevent such an outcome.
Perhaps being challenged will turn out to be a good thing for James and crew in the sense of preventing them from becoming overconfident and forcing them to stay focused and pay attention to detail.
