Dream Team III, Anyone?

Look, when it comes to the world of international basketball, Turkey is no Spain and Russia is no Argentina. That said, with USA Basketball spanking Turkey and Russia like they did, whispers clamoring over the latest installment of the Dream Team echo across the sports world.

Earlier this week, the USA Men’s Basketball team beat Russia by 20 points, and a few days before that they destroyed Turkey in an even more dominating fashion.

To put it simply, they are destroying teams as they prepare for the start of the Olympic basketball tournament.

But are we just fooling ourselves again? Is this another mirage? Are the big names and flashy games of Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James just dominating these lesser opponents, or are they actually ready to dominate some real competition?

It’s hard to say, because we’ve seen this same plot before, but with two different endings. We’ve seen the men dominate the weaker international teams, then go into the Olympics and dominate the better teams.

But we’ve also seen them dominate weaker teams, and then we watched them struggle against not only the top teams, but also against some of the more middle of the road contenders.

Those two scripts, still fresh in our heads from the 2004 and 2000 Olympics, make it hard to come to a conclusion on whether or not the USA will win the Gold in Beijing. But sports is about making tough decisions, and if forced into an answer, one has to maintain that this USA basketball team is looking quite dreamy.

That’s right, this is probably the latest version of the Dream Team; or Dream Team III, if you will. With players like Kobe, Wade, LeBron and Carmelo Anthony on the squad, you’re talking about players with comparable talent to that of Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Larry Bird, except all of these players are in their primes, when both Magic and Bird were at the end of their careers when they combined to create the first Dream Team.

So am I saying that Dream Team III is better than the original? No, not quite. The Dream Team had Hall of Fame players like Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, Charles Barkley and David Robinson all taking a backseat to Bird, Magic and Jordan; I mean, that’s just unprecedented. You don’t have those kind of players surrounding Kobe in this year’s crop. This year’s squad is comprised of more specialists than great players. Tayshaun Prince was brought on for defense. Michael Redd is their for his shooting. Jason Kidd is their purely as a distributor. And most of the big men on the team aren’t even your true low-post scorers, but they are more athletic post-men with the ability to move their feet on the perimeter.

However, even though Dream Team III isn’t necessarily comprised of the greatness that Dream Team I was, it may be a more team-oriented squad that is set to face a much more challenging international wave of basketball talent.

The first Dream Team never saw anyone who belonged on the court with them. Basketball wasn’t an international sport in 1992. It wasn’t the big commodity across the world that it is now. International players weren’t flooding the NBA ranks. Michael Jordan wasn’t the biggest thing on the planet yet. Moreover, the European basketball league–did it even exist?

This Dream Team is going to face serious competition. They will see their teammates in these Olympics. We’re talking about all-stars like Yao Ming and an MVP like Dirk Nowitzki. These aren’t your Mom and Dad’s international basketball players. These are serious contenders.

And yet, for whatever reason, I feel as if this Dream Team is going to do away with team…with relative ease. No disrespect to the Argentina’s and Spain’s of the world, but with Mike Krzyzewski at the helm, and the best players in the world finally on the squad, this team can’t lose. They just can’t.

And when they do win this Gold-and do it in what I predict to be grandiose fashion- it will be a physical accomplishment greater than that of the first Dream Team’s gold medal. It won’t be as big of a world statement, because of the symbolic nature of the original team’s victory and the way they helped inspire the world to play basketball. But their road to the Gold was a cakewalk compared to what today’s team will face in terms of competition, and yet I see nothing but staggering defeats in their fast approaching future.

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