Men's Basketball

Rio 2016 venue: Carioca Arena 1 (Barra Zone); Youth Arena (Deodoro Zone)
Competition dates: Aug. 6-20
Medal events: 1 (men's team)
Olympic introduction: 1936 (Berlin, Germany)


Preview
Riding the crest of back-to-back Olympic gold medals (2008, 2012) and FIBA World Cup titles (2010, 2014), and with a USA Basketball Men’s National Team roster featuring many of the best players in the world, the outlook for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team is strong. 

Since the formation of USA Basketball’s national team program in 2005 – which started with the selection of Basketball Hall of Fame members Jerry Colangelo as managing director and Duke University legendary mentor Mike Krzyzewski as head coach – U.S. national teams have compiled a spectacular 75-1 record and claimed top honors in five of six major international competitions. Currently, the U.S. men’s national team enters 2016 riding a 63-game winning streak, which includes 45 straight wins in FIBA and FIBA Americas competitions, and 18 consecutive wins in exhibition games. The streaks dates back to the bronze-medal game of the 2006 FIBA World Championship, held Sept. 2 in Japan.

Afforded the luxury of a national team roster overflowing with NBA All-Stars and international gold medalists, the 2016 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team roster features six Olympic and/or FIBA World Cup gold medalists.

Members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team, which is seeking a third consecutive Olympic title, are: Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks/Syracuse); Harrison Barnes (Dallas Mavericks/North Carolina); Jimmy Butler (Chicago Bulls/Marquette); DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings/Kentucky); DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors/USC); Kevin Durant (Golden State Warriors/Texas); Paul George (Indiana Pacers/Fresno State); Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors/Michigan State); Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers/Duke); DeAndre Jordan (Los Angeles Clippers/Texas A&M); Kyle Lowry (Toronto Raptors/Villanova); and Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors/Washington State).

The 2016 USA coaching staff is led by Duke University Hall of Fame mentor Mike Krzyzewski. He is assisted by Syracuse University Hall of Fame mentor Jim Boeheim, Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau and Monty Williams. 

Since NBA players were first permitted to compete at the Olympic Games in 1992, the U.S. has captured titles in five of the last six Olympics, while also claiming bronze in 2004. However, while the U.S. has dominated the now worldwide sport that originated in the U.S., winning Olympic gold is never quite as easy as it may seem. 

The men’s basketball field in 2016 is expected to be the most evenly matched group ever. With the continued globalization of basketball, the majority of nations expected to contend for a medal in 2016 are stronger and more experienced. Among the expected medal contenders are: Spain, featuring a wealth of proven talent, including NBA all-star Marc Gasol; France with at least 10 current NBA players available for its Olympic roster; Argentina, featuring NBA and international veterans Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola; host Brazil, which can choose from nine current NBA players; and no doubt other nations that hope to be in the medal hunt.


Athletes To Watch
Carmelo Anthony
A 2008 and 2012 Olympic gold medalist and 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, Anthony is Team USA’s first four-time Olympian in men’s basketball. The perennial NBA All-Star has played on no less than 12 USA Basketball teams and appeared in 73 games for the red, white and blue, compiling 1,117 points (15.3 ppg.) and 296 rebounds (4.1 rpg.).

Kevin Durant
A gold medalist at the 2012 Olympic Games and 2010 FIBA World Championship, Durant averaged a U.S. all-time Olympic high 19.5 points per game in London, and was selected MVP of the 2010 FIBA World Championship after averaging a U.S. all-time high 22.8 points per game. Also named the 2014 NBA MVP, he returned to form in 2015-16 after missing the majority of the 2014-15 season due to a foot injury.

Kyrie Irving 
Having helped lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA Championship, Irving knows a thing or two about coming up big in big games. A member of the 2014 USA World Cup Team that finished 9-0 and won the gold medal, Irving started all nine games and averaged 12.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, a team-leading 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals, while shooting 56.3 percent from the field, 60.9 (14-23) from three-point and 83.3 percent from the foul line. Averaging a team-high 24.4 minutes per game, he earned 2014 FIBA World Cup MVP honors after recording 26 points and four assists in the gold-medal game win over Serbia.

Paul George 
After suffering a horrific right leg, open tibia-fibula fracture with 9:33 remaining in the fourth quarter of the 2014 USA Basketball Showcase, George is back wearing red, white and blue. George, who missed over eight months after suffering the injury, returned and played in six games for the Indiana Pacers in 2014-15 . He played and started in 81 games in 2015-16, averaged 34.8 minutes (21st in NBA), 23.1 ppg. (10th in NBA), 7.0 rpg. (47th in NBA), 4.1 apg. (43rd in NBA) and 1.9 spg. (9th in NBA).


Storylines

  • The USA, gold medalists in 14 of the 17 Olympics in which it has participated, has a remarkable 130-5 win-loss record for a 96.3 winning percentage. U.S. Olympic Teams featuring NBA players are 45-3 and have won five of the last six Olympic titles (1992, 1996, 2000, 2008 and 2012). Men's basketball was introduced at the 1936 Olympics and the United States won 63 consecutive Olympic Games and a record seven straight gold medals before seeing the streak come to a halt with the 51-50 controversial loss to the Soviet Union in the 1972 gold-medal contest. Regrouping to win 21 straight between the 1976 Olympics and the semifinals of the 1988 Olympic Games, Team USA’s second loss came to the Soviet Union, 82-76, in the semifinals. The American men enter the Rio Games riding a 17-game Olympic winning streak.
  • Since first fielding a team of legendary NBA stars in 1992, USA Basketball national teams featuring NBA players have competed in 16 international basketball competitions and compiled a 126-7 record in official competitions, while also posting a record of 46-1 in exhibition games. Since winning the bronze medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, U.S. national teams have posted 63 consecutive victories, including 45 straight wins in FIBA and FIBA Americas competitions, and 18 consecutive wins in exhibition games. The streak includes gold-medal showings at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics; 2010 and 2014 FIBA World Cups; and 2007 FIBA Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
  • Involved in USA Basketball for five decades, U.S. head coach Mike Krzyzewski – who got his start in USA Basketball in 1979 – will coach his third U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team in 2016, a feat equaled only by former Oklahoma State and hall of fame mentor Henry Iba. Iba’s teams won Olympic gold medals in 1964 and 1968, and the U.S. was awarded the silver medal at the 1972 Games. Coach Krzyzewski has been head coach of the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic squads, and also served as an assistant coach with the famed 1992 Dream Team that captured an Olympic championship. In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, he served as a special assistant for U.S. head coach Bobby Knight and aided the American men to the gold medal.
  • Since the formation of USA Basketball’s national team program in 2005 – which started with the selection of Basketball Hall of Fame members Jerry Colangelo as managing director and Duke University legendary mentor Mike Krzyzewski as head coach – U.S. national teams have compiled a spectacular 75-1 record and claimed top honors in five of six FIBA or FIBA Americas competitions. Currently, U.S. men’s national teams enjoy a 63-game win streak, including 45 straight wins in FIBA and FIBA Americas competitions, and 18 consecutive wins in exhibition games.
  • Owning an Olympic record of 45-3 over the last six Olympic Games (1992-2012) there have been a number of close calls for the U.S. Most recently in 2012, the U.S. led by a single point heading into the fourth quarter of the gold-medal game versus Spain before taking a seven-point win.
    Earlier in preliminary play at the 2012 Games, the U.S. trailed Lithuania, 82-80, in the fourth quarter before earning a 99-94 victory. In the 2008 gold-medal game against Spain, the U.S. only led 108-104 with 2:25 remaining before prevailing 118-107. The U.S. lost three times in 2004 and won several tight games, including one game by six points (77-71 against Greece), and two by eight points (102-94 against Spain, 104-96 versus Lithuania). Team USA’s first close contest in Olympic action occurred in 2000 when the U.S. narrowly held on to defeat Lithuania, 85-83, in its semifinal game, then held off France, 85-75, in the gold-medal game. With the continued globalization of basketball, the majority of nations expected to contend for a medal in 2016 are stronger and more experienced than ever.

Women's Basketball

Rio 2016 venue: Carioca Arena 1 (Barra Zone); Youth Arena (Deodoro Zone)
Competition dates: Aug. 6-20
Medal events: 1 (women's team)
Olympic introduction: 1976 (Montreal, Québec)


Preview
The U.S. women’s basketball team enters the Rio 2016 Olympic Games riding a 41-game winning streak in Olympic play, dating back to the bronze-medal game in 1992. The U.S. women have medaled in each of the nine Olympic Games in which they have competed, collecting a record seven gold medals, one silver and one bronze. Overall, U.S. women’s basketball teams own a 58-3 Olympic record (.951 winning percentage).

As has been the case since Team USA’s gold medal-winning streak began in 1996, the 12-member team in 2016 features a blend of veterans and newcomers. Some of the top athletes in the current U.S. national team pool include three-time Olympic gold medalists Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings and Diana Taurasi; two-time Olympic gold medalists Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles; and 2012 Olympic gold medalists Tina Charles, Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen. Named to their first Olympic team are Elena Delle Donne, Brittney Griner and Breanna Stewart.

University of Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma will again lead the U.S. coaching staff after directing Team USA to the gold medal at the London 2012 Games. The staff features assistant coaches Doug Bruno (University of DePaul), an assistant on Auriemma’s staff in 2012; Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve; and University of South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, who earned three Olympic gold medals as an athlete, led the U.S. delegation into the 2004 Opening Ceremony and previously served as an assistant coach for the 2008 U.S. team.

Auriemma is the first to repeat as head women’s basketball coach of the U.S. Olympic Team and is the first coach to have led two U.S. world championship teams to gold medals (2010, 2014). If the U.S. captures gold in Rio, Auriemma will also become the first U.S. women’s coach, and the second ever, to lead two gold medal-winning women’s Olympic teams. The former Soviet Union’s Lydia Alexeeva did so in 1976 and 1980.

Australia, which has medaled in every Olympic Games since 1996, should again be among Team USA’s top competitors in Rio. Longtime rival Russia, which medaled the past three Olympics, failed to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. Look for France and Spain to be tough competitors, along with Canada and Serbia, two teams on the rise. 


Athletes To Watch
Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings and Diana Taurasi 
The veteran trio will play in its fourth Olympics and have a chance to equal Olympic greats Teresa Edwards and Lisa Leslie with four gold medals apiece.

Brittney Griner
A finalist for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team, Griner is a 6-foot-8 game-changing center who can dunk with ease. She earned all-tournament team honors at the 2014 FIBA World Championship.

Breanna Stewart
Stewart has been competing for USA Basketball since she was 14, and was the youngest athlete on the 2014 U.S. World Championship Team. She is a two-time USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year (2011, 2013), and has helped the University of Connecticut claim the past four NCAA Championship titles, earning NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors all four years.


Storylines

  • Five-time defending Olympic champions – a record for traditional women’s team sports – the U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team will look to capture its sixth-straight – and eighth overall – gold medal at the 2016 games. No other women’s traditional team sport has strung together more than four gold medals in a row. In fact, only two men’s streaks are longer: India’s field hockey men’s teams captured six straight gold medals (1928-56) and the U.S. men’s basketball teams captured seven straight gold medals (1936-68).
  • 2016 will mark two major anniversaries in U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team history: 1976 and 1996. Forty years ago saw the inclusion for the first time of women’s basketball on the Olympic slate, and the 1976 U.S. women’s team finished with the silver medal in Montreal. Twenty years later, another historic U.S. team took Atlanta by storm and earned the 1996 Olympic gold medal in front of a crowd of 32,997 fans. Both teams were game-changers in their own right. The 1976 team showcased the budding women’s basketball talent the U.S. had to offer, and the 1996 team was instrumental in helping launch two women’s professional leagues, including the WNBA, which celebrates its 20th season in 2016.
  • Reigning WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne was diagnosed with Lyme disease as a sophomore in college. She is extremely close to her older sister Lizzie, who has cerebral palsy and autism, and is blind and deaf. Elena is a Special Olympics Global Ambassador and she runs basketball camps in the WNBA off-season, which always include many special needs athletes.
  • Tina Charles, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist, launched Hopey’s Heart Foundation in 2013 after her aunt, Maureen “Hopey” Vaz died of multiple organ failure on March 9, 2013. The foundation is committed to raising the awareness of sudden cardiac arrest and hopes to place as many automatic external defibrillators in schools and gyms across the country and around the world.