The NBA-backed United States men's basketball team didn't taste its first defeat in an international basketball competition until 2002, but years before that signs that the world was beginning to catch up with the Americans in basketball were already emerging.
During the 2000 Olympics, the third version of the Dream Team raced to a 6-0 record. However, the team was tested like never before during their semifinal game against Lithuania, even if the former Soviet republic did not have its best player- Arvydas Sabonis.
Former Houston Rockets championship coach Rudy Tomjanovich , who was the head bench tactician for that Dream Team, still remembers what happened at the end of that game.
" Antonio McDyess was the guy who put the ball in the basket," 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."
McDyess almost became the goat
After rolling past its first six opponents, Team USA had a tougher-than-expected game against a Lithuanian team that was without Sabonis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The Lithuanians kept the game close, and with 43 seconds left in the game, they had a golden opportunity to put the Americans on the ropes.
McDyess fouled Ramunas Siskauskas on a three-point attempt with 43 seconds left in the game. But after making all of his 16 previous free throws in that tournament, he made only one out of three to give Lithuania an 81-80 advantage. Vince Carter then gave Team USA back the lead at 82-81 before McDyess' follow-up shot on a Kevin Garnett miss gave the Americans a comfortable 84-81 lead. But the Lithuanians weren't done.
After Sarunas Jasikevicius cut the lead to 84-83, they fouled Jason Kidd with 9.4 seconds left. Kidd split his free throws, giving Lithuania one last chance at a monumental upset. Unfortunately, Jasikevicius' three-point attempt missed and the Americans escaped with an 83-81 win.
It was only a matter of time when they would get beaten
Heading to the 2000 Olympics, no team had come within 22 points of an NBA-backed U.S. Team in an official game. But after beating Lithuania 85-76 in the preliminaries and Russia 85-70 , the Americans knew that it was only a matter of time when their invisibility would be cracked.
The United States hosted the 2002 FIBA World Championships in Indiana. But instead of keeping the unbeaten streak alive, Argentina snapped Team USA's then-58-game winning streak in international competition. The next day, the team lost again to Yugoslavia in the quarterfinals and was beaten by Spain in the battle for fifth place.
Team USA suffered further humiliation in the 2004 Olympics, where they were relegated to a bronze medal finish. But the Americans reigned supreme in the next four Olympics . At last year's FIBA World Championships, Team USA finished fourth, 'forcing' USA Basketball to assemble its current 'Avengers' team for the 2024 Olympics . That team has an impressive roster, but as we saw in their exhibition games, the rest of the world has closed the gap.
Related: Mike Krzyzewski on how Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant approached Team USA practices: "They were all business"
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