The 2000 Olympics men's Basketball gold medal contest was a tense duel between Team USA and France . Given their superior skill and athleticism, the Americans were highly favored to win against the French men.
Lack of respect
While Team USA prevailed, it was a close call that made Team USA fans sweat. Alonzo Mourning , one of the squad's big men, also felt the heat from the live fans.
"It was fun within our little unit, but I really didn't feel we were welcome here," Mourning said . "You could just feel it, the lack of respect, how the people wanted to see us lose. Our strength came from inside our own unit."
France cut the American lead to four points with just under four minutes left. It seemed like the tides were shifting. However, Team USA eventually figured it out and scored nine of the game's final 12 points to defeat France 85-75. Vince Carter chipped in a nasty double-pump dunk with 1:40 left in the game.
The 10-point margin was the lowest ever for the U.S. in a gold-medal victory. Stats show that it was the fifth time in these Olympics that the Americans won by 15 or fewer points, a stark difference from 1996 and 1992, when the U.S. teams won every game by at least 22 points and often had victory margins of 40 points or more.
"What this Olympics demonstrated is that the competitive level of international basketball has improved -- more so than casual observers of the game understood," NBA commissioner David Stern said.
Close call
The 2000 Olympics might have been the toughest tourney for Team USA thus far. In the semifinals, Lithuania almost pulled off the biggest upset in basketball history.
Tied at 80 and with under a minute left, Antonio McDyess fouled Ramunas Siskauskas from 3-point territory. To everyone's surprise, Siskauskas, Lithuania's best free throw shooter, who hadn't missed from the line in the entire tournament, converted on just one of the three free throws.
Nevertheless, it put Lithuania up by one. Even though Team USA managed to snatch the lead back, every point counts at the highest level of professional ball. And so when Sarunas Jasikevicius missed what would've been the game-winning 3-pointer, the power forward was relieved .
"Antonio McDyess was the guy who put the ball in the basket," Team USA coach Rudy Tomjanovich said . "When I went out to congratulate him, he was still hyperventilating because he was the guy who fouled the three-point shooter, and he didn't want to be the goat. The NBA players had never lost at that time, and nobody wanted to be on the team that lost for the first time."
Fortunately, things worked out well for the Americans in the 2000 Olympics. Some two decades later, they still reign supreme, but the rest of the world is closing the gap. There's no reason to relax.
Related: "We'll be criticized if we don't win by more than 20 points a game" — Alonzo Mourning on the ridiculous expectations placed on the 2000 Olympics squad
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