Argentina vs. USA 2004: The Game That Shocked Olympic Basketball

On August 27, 2004, Argentina's basketball team does something that has only happened two times in the Olympics previously. They beat the United States basketball team in the knockout round, meaning the United States would not win. And this was the first time. since NBA players were allowed that the United States did not win gold. It is the only time since. And today we're going to dive into what happened and how maybe the dream team is the reason why Argentina was able to win gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And the trivia question to listen out for today is, what was the only other country to beat the United States in the knockout round? So before we get to the actual game where Argentina beat the United States, let's first get to how these teams got to this point. So we'll start with Argentina as they were actually an early adopter in basketball. Obviously, basketball was created in Massachusetts in America. It was created at YMCA, and YMCA was international. And it actually made its way into Argentina in 1912 at a YMCA. And they began international play in 1921. And they participated in their first Olympics in 1948. And in 1952, they had their best performance in the Olympics until 2004, where they finished in fourth place. But they had some other successes. In 1950, they actually won the FIBA World Cup. And they were actually the runner-up in the FIBA World Cup in 2002, just before the 2004 games. And on their 2014, they actually had three NBA players on that team. Headlined by Manu Ginobili, who won three championships with the San Antonio Spurs. was a two-time All-Star, two-time Sixth Man of the Year, and later had his number retired by the San Antonio Spurs. So one of the better international players at the time. There was also Luis Scola, who was a starter in the NBA for multiple years, and Andres Nicoli, who was also an NBA player. And the rest of their team was made up of professional European players, which the professional European game had grown ever since the Barcelona games in 1992 where the Dream Team really took basketball and put it on center stage and allowed young kids to strive for a goal of making the Olympics for their country at the 2004 Athens Olympics. They were in Group A of the preliminary rounds where they actually finished third in their group behind Spain and Italy with three wins, two losses, where Spain won the group and they actually tied record-wise with Italy, but Italy had more points. But that was enough to qualify for the knockout stage. and in Group B featured the United States, which was the favorite every year in the Olympics ever since the beginning in 1936. Now, there have been two years that the United States have participated in the Olympics since 1930 that they have not won the gold medal. That was first in 1972 when the Soviet Union first won, and then again in 1988 when the Soviet Union won again. Now, there is an asterisk in 1980. Yugoslavia won the gold, but the United States boycotted this Olympics. And so they didn't actually have a chance to win. But ever since 1992, when NBA athletes were now allowed to participate in the Olympics, the United States have won ever since. And had won pretty handily, winning by over 28 points a game. And in the 2004 season, they were headed by Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, as well as headlined by Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan. Two Hall of Famers. Now, this team was very young. It was the youngest team that they ever sent to the Olympics. But it did have some great quality young players. In LeBron, James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony. All of which were the age of 22 or younger. LeBron was only 19 at the time. And this was one of the downfalls for the team. As previous iterations of the game had had more veteran presence. But this team didn't have the veteran presence. As many players had issues with Larry Brown, who was a hard-nosed coach that many players didn't like. And... Others had participated in the Olympics previously, and they got their gold and didn't want to participate again. So they were limited in the amount of players they had, but they still had great players. They still had other veterans besides Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan and Stephon Marbury, Lamar Odom, Richard Jefferson, Sean Marion. But this wasn't the all-star-studded group as it was before. They were still Hall of Famers, still all-stars, but it wasn't like the first two iterations of the dream teams anymore. where everyone was a Hall of Famer or All-Star. And in the group stage, they actually lost twice. Once to Puerto Rico, where they lost by 19 points. And then again, they lost to Lafayette by four points. And they were in the group B stage, which featured Lafayette, Greece, and Puerto Rico. They finished fourth, being the last team allowed in. As they tied with Greece, Puerto Rico, as they tied with Greece and Puerto Rico, due to point deformation. So they went into the knockout stage, and they faced the number one seed, Spain, which they were able to win 102-94. And that's when they went into the semifinals, where they faced Argentina, where Tim Duncan was facing off against a familiar face and his teammate in Manu Ginobili, where they had both won an NBA title the year before. So the game starts, and Manu Ginobili really sets the tone, driving the lane, hitting a couple three-pointers, and playing really aggressively against and taking advantage of the weak guard defense that the U.S. team had. Although Tim Duncan was really fighting to keep the U.S.A. team in it, and Allen Iverson was able to score at will after the first quarter, it was 22-20 with Argentina leading. Then in the second quarter, Luis Scola of Argentina started to take advantage of the backups for USA. As he was a quality NBA player, he knew how to take advantage of those, as Ginobili helped facilitate as well. And again, it was close, but Argentina won that quarter 24-20, leading at halftime 46-40, leaving the U.S. to scramble to see what to do to combat this. Now, the U.S. didn't have any good on-ball handlers for a guard like Ginobili, and so he remained unstoppable. continuing getting in the lane, hitting three-pointers, getting anything he wanted. And they extended their lead after the third quarter to 68-56. But the U.S. did not give up, and they came out with some veterans in Lamar Odom and Richard Jefferson who hit some key shots to get them back into the game. But sadly, it was not enough, and it was too late. The U.S. won the quarter with 25-21, but the lead was too big, and they lost 89-81. making it the first time when they competed in the Olympics, since NBA players were allowed to compete, that they did not win gold. They won a bronze medal. Manu Ginobili finished with 29 points. And Luis Gola helped out with a double-double. And the leading scorer for the U.S. team was Stephon Marbury with only 18 points and only four players reaching double figures. And the U.S. team would go on to face Lafayette in the bronze medal game, winning 104-96, winning a bronze medal. And Argentina would go on to face Italy in the championship battle after Italy beat Lafayette. And Argentina won 84-69, giving Argentina their first gold medal in Olympic history. And their first basketball Olympic medal. And gave Italy the silver. Now this was a high point for Argentina, a high point for the world. As it showed the world's basketball was having more talent and better success overall. on the world stage. But it sent the U.S. scrambling. And over the next few years, the U.S. would change the way they put their team together and has won a gold medal every Olympic since. Putting together teams that are more like the dream team than the 2004 team. And developing their team from young stars to hardened veterans, which has had way more success than when they did it back in 2004. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, please share it with a friend. Say, hey, check out this show so we can all become sports historians together and relive the greatest moments in sports history. Come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question? What was the only other country to beat the United States in the knockout round? And that was the Soviet Union beating the U.S. in 1972 and 1988. Thank you.