- Most embarrassing moments in olympics plus#
- Most embarrassing moments in olympics professional#
- Most embarrassing moments in olympics tv#
They lost 89-81.įast forward 17 years and Team USA has overcome that glitch and won gold at every subsequent Olympic tournament, but with their first game against France on Sunday night, there is little doubt that the so-called Dream Team is a long way from where it would like to be. In Athens in 2004, USA had already lost pool games to Puerto Rico and Lithuania and needed to beat Argentina to make it to the gold medal match.
Most embarrassing moments in olympics tv#
The Americans might have swept into Athens boasting such players as LeBron James, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson, but they would be skulking out in disgrace – and the ones throwing the most derogatory comments at the TV screen that day were the US reporters.
Most embarrassing moments in olympics professional#
I remember crowding around a TV screen with a large group of international journalists watching as the horror show unfolded and it became increasingly obvious that the US would be going home without the gold medal for the first time in the professional era. They had already lost pool games to Puerto Rico and Lithuania and needed to beat Argentina to make it to the gold medal match. I was covering an event elsewhere in the city when Team USA played in the semi-final. Twelve years later in Athens it was a different story. When Barkley was asked by a reporter what he knew about their first-up opponent Angola he quipped, 'I don't know anything about Angola, but Angola's in trouble.'
As for studying tapes of the other teams in their pool, forget it. The players were so sure of claiming the gold medal that they spent more time on the golf course than the practice court. It is something I have never experienced before or since.įormer Australian captain Shane Heal thinks the Boomers have a shot to win gold after they beat Team USA in a warmup in Las Vegas two weeks ago (pictured) - more proof the Americans are in trouble Some even rose to their feet in a standing ovation. I'll never forget the media conference the Dream Team held in Barcelona on the morning of the Opening Ceremony.Īs coach Chuck Daly led Jordan, Johnson, Bird, Barkley and co onto the stage at the jam-packed auditorium, supposedly professional journalists from all over the world began to applaud. 'It's not the same now, but the aura they had in 19 was unbelievable.' The overseas players play with and against them every day. 'Now it's different because there are so many international players over there and there is not that mystique about the US players anymore. When I went over to the NBA they figured if you weren't American you couldn't play. Up until then they looked down their noses at everyone else. 'You'd have to say they started losing their aura after Atlanta. 'We led them until the final quarter and that was the weakest Australian team I played in,' he said yesterday from his Sydney home. Greatest of all time Michael Jordan played in the all-conquering, best ever 1992 team (left) and four years later Jordan, Magic and Bird were gone, but the side was still very much deserving of the Dream Team label (pictured destroying Australia right)īy the time he played for Australia against Team USA in Athens eight years later, the Americans were a shadow of that Atlanta gold-medal winning team. Heal made a name for himself on the international stage by engaging in a running battle with Dream Team enforcer Charles Barkley during a warm-up match before the Atlanta Olympics and was signed by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA largely on the strength of it soon after the Games.
Most embarrassing moments in olympics plus#
To make things worse, two key players in Bradley Beal and Kevin Love have pulled out due to Covid and injury concerns.Īdd in the fact that their preparation overlapped the NBA finals, meaning some players only joined the squad a few days ago, plus the overall strangeness of the Covid-affected Games placing all competing athletes into unknown territory mentally, and you have a side ripe for the picking.įormer Australian captain Shane Heal played at the Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Olympics and has seen first-hand the gradual disintegration of the perception of Team USA invincibility.
In their four practice games in Las Vegas in the past two weeks, they lost to Australia and Nigeria – an experience described by their two-time gold medallist Kevin Durant as 'a punch in the mouth' - before scratching out unconvincing wins over Argentina and Spain. Zach LaVine #5, Bradley Beal #4, Damian Lillard #6, Kevin Durant #7, and Jayson Tatum #10 look dejected as they lose to Nigeria in a warmup game earlier this monthīut the 2021 version? Not on their best day.
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