Why the 2004 USA Olympic Team Only Won BRONZE

That is why Larry Brown is not coaching anymore. NBA is based on merit not seniority, but Larry Brown puts seniority ahead of abilities, sitting Lebron, Melo, and Wade on the bench for most of the game? You got to be kidding me.

No excuses.. "Obi Wan Ginobilli" and rest of team Argentina played well.

What's not understood by the average fan about the 2004 USA Olympic basketball team is that the team had suboptimal leadership at the point gaurd position. With the mere presence of either Jason Kidd and or Mike Bibby and these guys absolutly bring home the Gold.

melo, Bron, wade, iverson and Duncan should of been the starting lineup

Two words: MANU GINOBILI.

The starters should have been PG Allen Iverson SG D Wade Sf LeBron PF amare C Duncan That team would have killed.

Because Ginobli is a beast that time

"10 Lithuanian players with long names".. <-- That's the reason they lost.. Not coaching not everything else. That stuff is a consequence of the wrong mentality the entire team USA went to the Olympics.. They never considered foreign basketball worth it and they went with a superiority idea that they couldn't loose against teams with few/no nba players.. Bad coaching, bad performance and bad chemistry are all consequences of that mentality..At least team USA learned after that to never underestimate the rest of the world..Even if they don't bring they're top 12 players now they take seriously their opponents showing they are really the strongest ones..

Still no excuse. No 'real stars'? So what? It was a Roster of NBA Players. Every last one of them was an NBA Player. Puerto Rico brought 1 NBA Player. Argentina brought 2 NBA Players. USA brought 10 or 12 NBA Players. And we got our asses kicked. Who was the guy Argentina had that was significantly better in the post than Emeka Okafor? Oh, that's right... no one. Ok was arguably the worst player, legacy-wise, for Team USA. And he'd have been the Best Player on pretty much every team except Argentina. There is no excuse. Just call in like it is. We failed. Those players failed. With zero excuses. There wasn't another Team in the Olympics that could field a squad of 5 NBA Starters. Not a single one. No excuse.

It wasn't who they had on the team, it was how they played. More than enough "star power", more than enough skill. Phenomenal roster. I saw some moments that year where they won easily but I was not surprised at the subpar performance overall. In their wins there was too much one on one play, too much nervous energy, hero ball antics, sportscenter auditioning, etc. and all that was needed was a little exposure to a team that wasn't intimidated or awestruck. And it happened. Ultimately your point of it being the caching hit the nail right on the head. As much as we love and respect Larry Brown, he relied too much on talent alone and didn't guide the team into playing to their strengths as such and failed to give them an identity as Team USA 04.

What you forgot to mention was the stuff that happened before these Olympics. USA didn't even get a medal at 2002 World Cup. After losing to Argentina in the group stage, they had to meet Yugoslavia in the quarterfinals and lost. They ended up at 6th place, after losing to Spain., behind Yugoslavia, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand and Spain. Then they had to play 2003 Americas Championship (which they won) in order to qualify for the 2004 Olympics. They ended the tournament with 10-0 record and beating same Argentinian roster 106-73 in the final. 2003 USA roster included: Iverson, Kidd, McGrady, Vince Carter, Nick Collison, Jermaine O'Neal, Ray Allen, Bibby, Kenyon Martin, Duncan, Brand and Richard Jefferson.

No exusions. 3 loses. 1. game: CARLOS ARROYO beat team full of nba stars an future all time greats 2. game: Lithuania without NBA players beat team full of nba stars... 3. game: Manu and Scola beat team of Iverson, lebron, wade, marbury, duncan... DISGRACE!!!!!!

“We’re lucky we even medaled” - Tim Duncan

No shooter. That’s the problem. Look at Argentina protecting paint not being afraid of America’s outside shooting. Poor player choice by Larry Brown.

the problem was that they had more talent collectively than any other team playing, and they knew it. Coach Brown should've been able to play nearly any combination of those players and won... They were just too cocky. compare to tortoise and the hare.

I remember that loss in the group stage against Lithuania. They left waaay too many good shooters open, appearently not knowing that Lithuania was renowned throughout Europe as having incredible 3-point shooters (compared to other teams at the time).

Coaching was the issue... Lebron was already a top player in the league.. And he didn't play???

Lebronze

Ahahhahah.....wtf?you dont know who is Jasikevicius? 😂😂😂

This was before the coach has a say in the roster of USA basketball. The problem with that is Larry Brown was notoriously distrustful of young players. The best players (besides Duncan, who was great for the whole tournament) didn't play but a few scant minutes because they were 21 or 22. Go back and watch how Manu Ginobili was torching the US, then Wade comes in and puts the clamps on him, I mean stash! Then Brown takes Wade out the game! And Manu goes right back to torching them again! The USA could have easily won, if Brown has been allowed to assemble a roster of veterans that he respected.