The U.S. men's basketball team at the 2024 Olympics won the gold medal on Saturday against the hosts France. However, despite their victory, Skip Bayless isn't too impressed with the current version of Team USA.
According to Bayless, if the 2024 U.S. team were to compete in a hypothetical showdown with the original Dream Team of 1992, they would not win against Michael Jordan and company because the current squad does not have the same ability to finish off opponents as MJ's group.
They needed Curry's explosion to beat Serbia and France
After beating their first four opponents by an average winning margin of 24.75 points, Team USA struggled against Nikola Jokic and Serbia in the semifinal.
In that game, Serbia led most of the way, and the Americans took the lead when a Curry three-pointer gave them an 87-86 advantage with 2:24 left in the game. Team USA won 95-91 but did not cover as 16-point favorites.
Against France, the Americans led the majority of the game. But with 3:04 left in the game, France cut the lead to 79-82 on a Wemby putback. Once again, Curry bailed out Team USA with four straight three-pointers. The U.S. team won the game 98-87 and took home the gold. But again, they failed to cover the spread as favorites by 17 points.
Related: "We didn't get respect; not as a basketball nation, but as a team" - Serbian coach is furious as his stars combined for only five free-throws
Pierce thinks the 2024 Team beats the Dream Team
It's unclear whether Bayless lost a bet on Team USA in the semifinals or final. That is because when Skip talked about 'failing to cover' against Serbia and France, he was talking about the betting spread or the expected winning margin as set by Las Vegas oddsmakers.
The controversial analyst implies that because they couldn't cover the spread, they couldn't put away their opponents and, hence, didn't have enough killer instinct. However, this may be a flawed argument.
What Skip fails to account for is the level of opposition that the 2024 team faced as compared to the 1992 Dream Team. The gap between them and the rest of the world is much closer than it was in '92. The game is also played differently, with teams relying heavily on three-point shooting to offset the difference in athleticism and size.
Bayless can pick whichever team he thinks wins this hypothetical matchup because that's his opinion. But to say that a squad with at least Steph, KD, and LeBron doesn't have enough killer instinct is borderline ridiculous. We don't have to list those three's accolades and achievements in their resumes to prove our point.
Related: Skip Bayless says Curry should've been Olympic MVP over LeBron: "We would not have won either without him"
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