Which US Olympic Men's Basketball Squad is The Greatest of All-Time?

All eyes will be on the Paris Olympics this summer when the US men’s basketball team takes center court in the French capital. Led by LeBron James and Stephen Curry, the star-studded squad isn’t just heavily favored to beat opposing teams, it’s expected to crush them. 

Such is the fate of Team USA, for whom golds are a given and competitions are mere coronations. It has been that way since 1936, when basketball was first introduced to the modern Olympiad; America has won 16 Olympic gold medals to go along with seven FIBA AmericCups and five World Cups in that span.  
Simply put, America is really good at basketball.

The question is, which iteration of the US Olympic basketball team is the greatest squad of all time? Is it the revered 1992 Dream Team that nonchalantly blew out opponents by an average of 43 points per game? Is it the equally daunting 2008 Redeem Team, which reasserted America’s dominance after a minor hiccup four years earlier? Or maybe it will be this year’s star-studded squad, which counts among its members four former NBA MVPs and the league’s all-time leading scorer.

It’s the kind of question that can only be adequately answered by someone with a deep appreciation for international basketball and, just as importantly, far too much time on their hands. In other words, someone like me.

I’ve been a hardcore hoops fan since the moment I was old enough to cradle a ball. I witnessed the dawn of Bird vs. Magic, I saw Michael Jordan blossom into superstardom, and I was there when the NBA added new franchises in Charlotte, Miami, Minnesota, and Orlando. You can imagine my excitement, then, when America broke with tradition in 1992 and sent a team of NBA players to the Olympics for the first time in history.

It was as if the Beatles and Rolling Stones formed a single supergroup, or if The Flash, Dash, Quicksilver, and Superman assembled a 4x4 relay team. Only in this case, it actually happened. The team, which featured 11 future Hall of Famers and one lucky SOB from Duke, barely broke a sweat as it rattled off eight straight wins and captured gold.

More than 30 years later, the Dream Team is still regarded by many as the greatest collection of talent in sports history. The group’s transcendent play inspired young athletes around the globe and gave rise to a new wave of international hoop stars like Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Gasol, and Yao Ming, all of whom were in their formative years during the 1992 Summer Games.

Even now, it’s no coincidence that the top four vote-getters for the 2024 NBA MVP award were born outside of the US.
So how exactly can we definitively determine whether the Dream Team is the greatest US squad of all time? I’m glad you asked. I propose pitting every US Men’s Olympic team since 1992 into a single-elimination, winner-takes-all tournament.

Methodology

This may be an imaginary comPetition, but I’m still using rigid regulations. All Games will be played on neutral courts and will be governed by international rules. That means 40-minute Games, a shorter 3-point line, trapezoid lanes, and wildly unpredictable referees.

All players will also be frozen in time and will be the precise age they were when they competed on their respective teams. In other words, the 1992 Dream Team will be stuck with a gimpy 35-year-old Larry Bird rather than the 29-year-old version of the player who was just coming off his third consecutive NBA season.

Now that I’ve established the rules, let’s take a closer look at the competition — or if you want to jump right to the (hypothetical) competition, we can skip the formalities.

1992 US Men’s Olympic Basketball Team

Record: 8-0
Result: Gold🥇
Returning players: 1
Points per game: 117
Per game point differential: +43
Leading scorer: Charles Barkley (18.0 ppg)

Just how good was the 1992 Dream Team? Head coach Chuck Daly didn’t call a single timeout during the entire tournament. Think about that for a moment. The US squad was so much better than everyone else in the world that it never once needed to discuss strategy, talk about defensive assignments, or even take a breather.

The only time the Dream Team ever really broke a sweat was during its earliest scrimmages when it lost to a team made up of the best college players in America. As shocking as that was at the time, it was also a motivational tactic employed by Daly, who limited Michael Jordan’s playing time and made nonsensical substitutions to put his team at a disadvantage. The senior squad got the message loud and clear and beat the college kids like a rented mule the following day.

1996 US Men’s Olympic Basketball Team

Record: 8-0
Result: Gold🥇
Returning players: 5
Points per game: 102
Per game point differential: +32
Leading scorer: Charles Barkley (12.4)

The 1996 US men’s basketball team was all about continuity. Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, and John Stockton all returned from the original Dream Team and were supported by a cadre of future Hall of Famers in Grant Hill, Shaquille O’Neal, Reggie Miller, and Mitch Richmond. The 12-man unit even featured a ringer of sorts, as Hakeem Olajuwon suited up after earning American citizenship in 1993. It was an almost unfair assemblage of talent, and the US team predictably cut through the competition like a nuclear-powered buzzsaw.

The only real drama centered around playing time. Shaq was so upset about playing only two minutes in the final game that he threw his gold medal out the window on his drive home from the arena.

2000 US Men’s Olympic Basketball Team

Record: 8-0
Result: Gold🥇
Returning players: 1
Points per game: 95
Per game point differential: +22
Leading scorer: Vince Carter (14.8 ppg)

Put your hand up if you fondly remember the careers of Vin Baker, Antonio McDyess, and Steve Smith. Anyone? Anyone at all? Those players may have been All-Stars at the time, but they’re now mere footnotes in history. The 2000 US men's Olympic basketball team had more than enough talent to beat the likes of Italy and New Zealand but would surely struggle today as the rest of the world has upped its game considerably in the past 24 years.

2004 US Men’s Olympic Basketball Team

Record: 5-3
Result: Bronze🥉
Returning players: 0
Points per game: 88 
Per game point differential: +4.6
Leading scorer: Allen Iverson (13.8 ppg)

There are few relationships in basketball more important than the bond between a team’s head coach and his point guard, which is precisely why the 2004 US Olympic basketball team was doomed from the start. Larry Brown and Stephon Marbury clashed throughout the tournament, with Marbury going so far as to call it the “worst 38 days of my life.” Their inability to get on the same page disrupted team chemistry and led to shocking defeats to Puerto Rico, Lithuania, and Argentina.

The team’s 19-point loss to PR remains the largest margin of defeat for a US roster in Olympic history and ushered in a series of sweeping changes that eschewed star power in favor of team chemistry and more deliberate roster construction.

2008 US Men’s Olympic Basketball Team

Record: 8-0
Result: Gold🥇
Returning players: 4
Points per Game: 106
Per Game point differential: +28
Leading scorer: Dwyane Wade (16.0 ppg)

The members of the 2008 US men’s basketball team entered Beijing with a tremendous chip on their shoulders. Inspired by Kobe’s relentless drive and powered by LeBron and Dwyane Wade, the so-called “Redeem Team” established an extraordinary +161-point differential through its first five games before dispatching a pair of “Golden Generation” teams in Argentina and Spain.

America’s sheer dominance sent shockwaves around the world and re-established the US as the planet’s preeminent basketball superpower.

2012 US Men’s Olympic Basketball Team

Record: 8-0
Result: Gold🥇
Returning players: 5
Points per game: 116
Per game point differential: +33
Leading scorer: Kevin Durant (19.5 ppg)

Much ink has been spilled over whether the 2012 US Olympic basketball team could beat the original Dream Team. Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley both considered the notion laughable, but Kobe Bryant wasn’t so sure. "[T]hey were a lot older, at kind of the end of their careers," he said prior to the Summer Games in London. “We have just a bunch of young racehorses, guys that are eager to comPete."

One thing that isn’t up for debate is that the 2012 US Men’s team was the class of the Olympics. Led by Kobe, LeBron, and KD, the squad trailed in the fourth quarter only once while cruising to an 8-0 record and a gold medal.

2016 US Men’s Olympic Basketball Team

Record: 8-0
Result: Gold🥇
Returning players: 2
Points per game: 101
Per game point differential: +23
Leading scorer: Kevin Durant (19.4 ppg)

The 2016 edition of the US men's basketball team certainly got the job done, but the results were seldom pretty. Coach K’s crew repeatedly played from behind and needed a miracle to edge Serbia by three points in what was the smallest margin of victory for the US since 2004.

Ultimately, this team will be better remembered for Draymond Green’s accidental NSFW photos than for anything it accomplished on the court.

2020 US Men’s Olympic Basketball Team

Record: 5-1
Result: Gold🥇
Returning players: 2
Points per game: 99
Per game point differential: +20
Leading scorer: Kevin Durant (20.7 ppg)

A podium finish was far from a sure thing in 2020 when the US sent a young and largely untested group to Tokyo. Kevin Durant and Draymond Green were the only returning Olympians and the squad’s inexperience showed early as it dropped a pair of exhibition games to Nigeria (!!!) and Australia before losing a group-stage match to France. It was a tense two weeks, but KD put the US on his back and carried the team to victory through a series of superhuman performances.

2024 US Men’s Olympic Basketball Team

Record: TBD
Result: TBD
Returning players: 7
Points per game: TBD
Per game point differential: TBD
Leading scorer: TBD

Steve Kerr’s 2024 US Olympic squad enters the tournament with prohibitive -2,000 odds to capture gold — and those may even be a touch long when you consider the competition. Sure, Canada and France may offer some resistance, but this team will ultimately be measured against the US squads that came before it, rather than the mere mortals they’ll face in Paris.

Tournament odds and seeding

In light of having an odd number of teams in the tournament, we’re giving the 1992 Dream Team the respect it deserves and granting it a free pass directly to the gold medal game. It feels only appropriate the squad should be grandfathered in since most of its players are now grandfathers as well. Onto the games!

All-Time Dream Team Tournament

First Round

(2) 2008 US Men’s Team vs. (9) 2004 US Men’s Team

All signs point to a colossal upset early on as Stephon Marbury plays out of his mind during the first quarter. The mercurial point guard stymies Jason Kidd with a series of daring drives and long-range shots reminiscent of his days hooping in New York’s famous Rucker Park.

His fast-and-loose style brings fans to their feet, and it feels as though the roof is going to blow off the arena when he splits two defenders and hits a jump shot from half court… with 15 seconds still on the shot clock.
And that’s when Larry Brown intervenes. The old school coach looks as though he’s about to have an aneurism as he forcibly yanks Marbury off the court and banishes him to the end of the bench, where he’ll stay firmly planted for the remainder of the game.

With Marbury now neutralized, the Redeem Team begins picking away at the lead. The experience gained the previous four years by LeBron, D-Wade, and Carmelo Anthony is evident as they school the younger versions of themselves, showcasing a full range of moves and countermoves learned since 2004. Younger Melo appears especially frustrated as his 2008 alter-ego calmly hits three baseline jumpers in a row.

The real star, however, is Kobe Bryant, who turns in a virtuoso two-way performance. The recently crowned NBA MVP shuts down Allen Iverson on D and finishes with a game-high 35 points on 10-18 shooting.

Final score: 2008 US Men’s Team 112, 2004 US Men’s Team 89

(3) 2024 US Men’s Team vs. (8) 2000 US Men’s Team

The 2000 team was full of rising stars, but young guns are simply no match for the 2024 team, which contains some of the greatest players to ever step on the hardwood.

That becomes painfully obvious early on when Vince Carter tries to leap over Jayson Tatum only to be met at the rim by Kawhi Leonard, who snatches the basketball mid-air with one enormous hand. Not today, Air Canada.

Leonard’s super-human swat sets the tone for the rest of the game as the 2024 team puts on a defensive clinic. Jrue Holiday does a masterful job with his point-of-attack defense and Joel Embiid prevents Kevin Garnett and Shareef Abdur-Rahim from ever getting comfortable in the paint.

Not to be outdone, LeBron posts a triple-double as he directs traffic and sets up the 2024 team’s lethal shooters with a series of pinpoint passes.

Final score: 2024 US Men’s Team 106, 2000 US Men’s Team 94

(4) 2012 US Men’s Team vs. (7) 2020 US Men’s Team

The 2020 team could have been so much better were it not for the withdrawals of LeBron, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Jimmy Butler, and Steph Curry. Alas, they’re stuck with a junior varsity squad and that simply isn’t good enough against the overwhelming talent of the 2012 team, which boasts eight sure-fire future Hall of Famers.

The 2012 team has another thing going for it: cohesion. LeBron, Kobe, Melo, Chris Paul, and Deron Williams all re-upped from the Redeem Team and their chemistry is apparent as they display a preternatural understanding of where to find their teammates and precisely how to set them up. That’s particularly clear late in the third quarter when CP3 throws a 90-foot no-look pass to a streaking Andre Iguodala, who punctuates the play with a vicious tomahawk slam.

Final score: 2012 US Men’s Team 108, 2020 US Men’s Team 80

(5) 1996 US Men’s Team vs. (6) 2016 US Men’s Team

The Dream Team gets a lot of credit, but the 1996 team was also unbelievably stacked and featured eight of the Top 10 vote-getters for the 1996 NBA MVP award. The only players missing were Michael Jordan, who chose to give younger players a shot at glory, and Shawn Kemp, who was doing his best that summer to evade paternity tests.

Beyond its sheer star power, the team’s greatest strength was its interior presence, and that’s on display throughout this game as Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, and David Robinson score at will against a dreadfully overmatched DeMarcus Cousins. It truly is an unfair fight pitting three of the greatest centers in NBA history against a guy presently playing for the Taiwan Beer Leopards (yes, that’s really a team). When Cousins invariably fouls out, DeAndre Jordan steps in and is similarly humbled. The result is the most lopsided game in our entire tournament.

Final score: 1996 US Men’s Team 110, 2016 US Men’s Team 66

Second Round

(2) 2008 US Men’s Team vs. (5) 1996 US Men’s Team

USAB officials knew precisely what they were doing when they selected Mike Krzyzewski to lead the Redeem Team, which was assembled with the sole purpose of returning the US to the mountaintop following its disastrous finish in 2004. Coach K instilled the team with a killer mentality and had the perfect captain in Kobe, a player who delighted in ripping the beating hearts out of his opponents and stomping on them at mid-court.

The 1996 team, meanwhile, was already something of an afterthought by the time it was assembled. The players had nothing to prove and spent much of the tournament going through the motions with the knowledge they could still win with little to no effort.

That mentality dooms them against the Redeem Team, who gleefully expose Charles Barkley and Karl Malone, who were both on the back nines of their career and were mostly there to sell sneakers. Kobe never takes his foot off the gas and makes it to the line 10 times en route to a game-high 32 points. A ridiculously jacked Dwight Howard more than holds his own against Shaq and Hakeem, and D-Wade makes his presence felt with 20 points and 10 assists in just 22 minutes.

Final score: 2008 US Men’s Team 92, 1996 US Men’s Team 85

(3) 2024 US Men’s Team vs. (4) 2012 US Men’s Team

The 2012 team was exceptional but lacked the same single-minded drive of the Redeem Team. It had already resurrected US basketball and had considerably less to prove. The drop-off at center from Dwight Howard to Tyson Chandler was also particularly profound, and it’s the reason the team struggles against the 2024 squad.

As solid as Chandler was defensively, he has no answers for Joel Embiid, who punishes him from deep when Chandler stays in the paint and muscles his way to the hoop when Chandler tries to guard him on the perimeter. Chandler has never seen anyone with Embiid’s size and touch, and he gets into early foul trouble when he tries to guard the Sixers center on his own.

The 2012 team has no choice but to double Embiid, but when it does, he finds Steph Curry, who connects on eight 3-pointers, and Kevin Durant, who goes 5-6 from beyond the arc. Their inside-outside game is too much for the 2012 team and they come up just short despite a heroic rally in the fourth quarter.

Final score: 2024 US Men’s Team 122, 2012 US Men’s Team 114

Third Round

(2) 2008 US Men’s Team vs. (3) 2024 US Men’s Team 

The Redeem team had one thing that the 2024 team is unlikely to replicate: 5:30 a.m. workouts. Kobe made expectations clear for his squad by dragging his teammates out of bed every morning at the crack of dawn to hit the gym before practice. His maniacal approach seemed insane to guys like Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams at first, but they quickly got on board and developed the habits that allowed them to crush every team in their path.

That’s not to say that the 2024 team will skip any steps, but they won’t have the same kind of singularly focused psychopath leading the charge. And in a game between two otherwise evenly-matched rosters, that mindset will make all the difference.

The 2024 team finds out what they’re up against early on when Kobe picks Steph Curry’s pocket for an easy deuce on the opening possession and then takes a charge against Joel Embiid the next time down the court. His tenacious D proves infectious and the 2024 team is held to just 12 points in the opening quarter.

The 2024 squad eventually finds its rhythm in the second half, as all great teams do, but by then it’s too late. The Redeem team has already built a 10-point lead and Jason Kidd is milking the clock on every possession. His highly orchestrated game of keep-away prevents the 2024 team from ever mounting a serious run and Kobe & Co. pull out a sweat-drenched six-point win. Looks like all those early morning weight sessions were worth it after all.

Final score: 2008 US Men’s Team 92, 2024 US Men’s Team 86

Championship Game

(1) 1992 US Men’s Team vs. (2) 2008 US Men’s Team

Nostalgia has a way of playing tricks on the mind.

Although the 1992 Dream Team is widely remembered as being the greatest squad ever assembled, many basketball fans conveniently gloss over some critical details about the squad’s flawed roster. For instance, Larry Bird was coming off a season in which he played just 45 games and, by all accounts, looked like the oldest 35-year-old on the planet as he dealt with crippling back spasms.

Magic Johnson, meanwhile, sat out the entire 1991-92 season after announcing he had contracted HIV. And then there’s John Stockton, who broke his leg in a tune-up game against Canada and played limited minutes in the Olympics due to his staggering lack of mobility. The Dream Team may have had plenty of stars, but several of its top attractions were tarnished by the time the club arrived in Barcelona.

The 2008 team, on the other hand, had a cadre of healthy, in-their-prime players who were practically salivating at the chance to embarrass the competition. None more so than Kobe Bean Bryant. 

The Lakers star obsessively studied Jordan’s every move until he became a near-carbon copy of the six-time champion. If you’ve spent more than five minutes on YouTube, chances are you’ve seen the overlay video of the two players in which Kobe perfectly replicates every one of Jordan’s moves, right down to his famous tongue waggle. 

And although Kobe was not as good as his predecessor, he did have the same pathological, competitiveness and tenacity. In this game, that will be enough to limit Jordan’s effectiveness and allow the pair to essentially cancel each other out.

With Jordan a relative non-factor, the 2008 team uses its youth and athleticism to turn the game into a track meet. Magic and Bird struggle to keep up with Jason Kidd and LeBron James, and Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh do a stellar job of protecting the paint every time the 1992 team tries to slow down the game in the half-court. Barkley’s bully ball keeps the game from slipping away, but the Dream Team has clearly met its match and concedes to a hyper-athletic team built much more like the group of college kids that beat them in practice during their training camp rather than the paper-thin international teams they steamrolled in the Olympics.

Final score: 2008 US Men’s Team 118, 1992 Dream Team 107

All-Tournament Team

• Guard: Kobe Bryant (2008 USA Men's Team)
• Guard Michael Jordan (1992 USA Men's Team)
• Forward: Charles Barkley (1992 USA Men's Team)
• Forward: LeBron James (2008 USA Men's Team)
• Center: Joel Embiid (2024 USA Men's Team)