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- Can anyone come
close to Team USA at the Rio Olympics?
Can
anyone come close to Team USA at the Rio Olympics?
The United States
basketball team will once again attempt to defend their Olympic gold
medal in Rio de Janeiro this summer. Since basketball became an
integral sport at the Games, Team USA have won the gold medal an
incredible 14 times and are looking for their third successive triumph
this summer.
Can anybody step up and stop this incredibly talented nation from
winning the gold medal for the 15th time? Probably not – but we
thought that in 2004 and Argentina shocked the world to claim a famous
scalp.
At the time of writing, punters who are betting
on the Olympics can get 1/8 with Paddy Power on Team USA
winning the tournament this summer. And if truth be told, it is hard to
imagine them failing on the big stage.
In 2012, the likes of LeBron James and Kevin Durant played prominent
roles and those two players alone are capable of winning a basketball
game. This year, James will be joined by a number of the
record-breaking Golden State Warriors team as the United States look to
assert their dominance once again.
Even if Team USA perform poorly, they will still fancy their chances of
reaching the final four at the very least – such is the vast array of
talent across the roster, even without
MVP Stephen Curry in the side. Right now, the United States are
streets ahead of their nearest rivals and it is almost impossible to
imagine they will fail.
Every single member of their side is an NBA star and
they are blessed with riches in almost every position; both in attack
and defence. In fact, it’s almost unfair – THAT’S how good they are
when they play at their very best.
But they cannot afford to get complacent.
Complacency and taking others for granted has hurt many elite nations
in the past and the United States will be wary of this. The likes of
France, Spain and 2004 winners Argentina will be quietly confident of
causing an upset, especially if the United States fail to gel as a
team.
While this is unlikely, all three of these nations are capable of
hurting Team USA and producing one of the biggest shocks in sporting
history. After all, this is the Olympics and strange things tend to
happen...
Realistically, it will take a major
collapse for the United States to fail in their bid to win a
15th gold medal this summer. Basketball is THEIR sport and they
are the best at it. The NBA isn’t exclusively American anymore and
other nations are improving rapidly but Team USA are still the guys to
beat. And with so much talent across the squad, it’s not exactly
difficult to see why they are so highly regarded in the basketball
world.
Yes, they may not be earning the millions that they do during the NBA
season but at the Olympics, it’s about the pride and passion of
representing your country and winning medals – and that’s exactly what
Team USA are going to do this summer.
