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

On August twenty seventh, two thousand and four, Argentina's basketball team does something that had 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, and 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 two thousand and four 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 nineteen twelve at YMCA, and they began international play in nineteen twenty one, and they participated in their first Olympics in nineteen forty eight and in nineteen fifty two. They had their best performance in the Olympics until two thousand and four, where they finished in fourth place, but they had some other successes. In nineteen fifty they actually won the FIBA World Cup, and they were actually the runner up in the FIBA World Cup in two thousand and two just before the two thousand and four games, and on their twenty four team, they actually had three NBA players on that team, headlined by Managerobili, who won three championships with the San Antonio Spurs, was a two time All Star, two times a six Man of the Year and later had his number retired by the San die 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 Andreas 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 nineteen ninety two, 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 two thousand and four Athens Olympics, they were in Group A of the preliminary rounds, where they actually finished third in their group by in 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 nineteen thirty six. Now there have been two years that the United States have participated in the Olympics since nineteen thirty that they have not won the gold medal. That was first in ninete seventy two when the Soviet Union first won, and then again in nineteen eighty eight when the Soviet Union won again. Now there is an astrous In nineteen eighty 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 nineteen ninety two, when NBA athletes were now allowed to participate in the Olympics, the United States have won ever since and had won pretty winning by over twenty eight points a game. And in the two thousand and four season, they were head by Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, as well as headlined by Alan Iverson and Tim Duncan to hall of famers. Now, this team was very young. It was the youngest team that they ever since the Olympics, but it did have some great quality young players and Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony, all of which were where the age of twenty two are younger. Lebron was only nineteen 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 eliminated. The amount of players they had, but they still had great players. They still had veterans in ste they still had other veterans besides Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan and Stefan Marberry, lamar Odom, Richard Jefferson, Sean Marion. But this wasn't the All Stars Studied 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 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 nineteen points and then again they lost to Lafia by four points, and they were in the Group B stage which featured Lafia, 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 and due to point deferition, so they went into the knockout stage and they faced the number one seat Spain, which they were able to win one O two to ninety four, and that's when they went into the semi finals where they faced Argentina where Tim Duncan was facing Offiicans, a familiar face and his teammate and managing Nobili where they had both won an NBA title the year before. So the game starts and manager Genobily really sets the tone, driving the lane, hitting a couple of three pointers and playing really aggressively and taking advantage of the weak guard defense that the US team had. Although Tim Duncan was really fighting to keep the USA team in it and Alan Iverson was able to score at will. After the first quarter it was twenty two to twenty with Argentina leading. Then in the second quarter, Louis 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 Genobili helped facilitate as well, and again it was close. Argentina won that quarter twenty four to twenty, leading at halftime forty six to forty, leaving the US to scramble to see what to do to combat this. Now, the US didn't have any good on ball handlers for guard like Genoboli, and so he remained unstoppable, continuing getting into the lane, hitting three pointers, getting anything he wanted, and they extended their lead after the third quarter to sixty eight to fifty six, but the US did not give up and it came out with some veterans in Lamar Odeman Richard Jefferson, who had some key shots to get them back into the game, but sadly it was not enough and it was too late. The US won the quarter with twenty five to twenty one, but the lead was too big and they lost eighty nine to eighty one, 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. Managed Genobli finished with twenty nine points and Louis scol It helped out with a double double, and the leading scorer for the US team was Stefon Marberry with only eighteen points and only four players reaching double figures, and the US team would go on to face Lafia in the bronze medal game, winning one to four to ninety six, winning a bronze medal, and Argentina would go on to face Italy and a championship battle. After Italy beat Lafia and Argentina won eighty four to sixty nine, 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, high point for the world, as it showed the world's basketball was having more talent and better success on the world stage. But it sent the US scrambling, and over the next few years, the US 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 twenty four team and developing their team from young stars to hardened veterans, which has had way more success than when they did it back in two thousand and four. 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 US in nineteen seventy two and nineteen eighty eight.