The Olympics is home to the best of the best in different sports. In basketball, that description has only applied to the United States, but that was more than 20 years back.
Today, the best players are coming from all corners of the globe. Whether it’s from down under, up north, or whatnot, the competition has improved by leaps and bounds.
For this year’s version of Team USA, the feeling of uneasiness has came back to haunt them from the basketball court to their boat. They remain undefeated, but the past three wins were eye-openers for everyone.
In a recent article by Michael Lee for The Vertical, small forward Paul George admitted to not expecting this kind of challenge.
“I think to start out, personally, I thought we were going to dominate and these games were going to be easy. We started playing better competition, I think you see, across the board, these teams are pretty good.”
From trailing Australia for most of their game, winning against Serbia by a slim margin, to almost being defeated by a Tony Parker-less France, things just got from bad to worse. But for what it’s worth George is able to realize what has been working for their opponents.
“The luxury they have is they've been together for so long. You really can't stress that enough. You see it. They just read each other so well. I think that's the biggest thing that really separates us from them.”
The road is about to get tougher and the pressure will surely become heavier for Team USA as they step onto the knockout stages next. It’s win or go home.
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