This is an I-Heart podcast.

You are listening to the Dan Patrick show on Fox Sports Radio.

He's Joe Varden from the Athletic.

He's been covering Team USA over in Paris during the Summer Olympics.

Joe, if I was sitting next to you with seven minutes to go and Team USA was down 11 what would you be saying well i wouldn't be

saying anything because i had my head buried in the laptop writing about how this collection of

all-time legendary NBA greats players and coaches had collectively failed and that USA

basketball was heading into a extended period of soul searching with the LA

Olympics coming up and them not being defending champions that was the scenario

guys that they were dominated.

Even when they made that little push there in the third quarter to cut it to six,

it was right back up to 15 with 30 seconds left, ridiculous four-point play.

So what happened from the seven-minute mark in was once-in-a-lifetime type stuff. Yeah, that's what I wonder.

It's nice to applaud them that they did come back, but how did they get down 17 in the first place?

Yeah, I think it's a lesson. I don't mean to go on too long here, but I do think what happened last night is a lesson for anyone who's not paying attention about how much the game has changed.

And it answered a question that we didn't have an answer to coming into these Olympics, which is, can the USA continue to just flood the talent or the court with talent and guarantee themselves a gold

medal.

The answer is no.

They can't do that anymore.

Now they may very well win tomorrow night, but what we learned is that a team built

around just one superstar with one competent shooter in Boggey, Bogdanovich, and then role players who are

solid Euroleague role players, they can dictate the pace of play against anybody.

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