During the 2002 FIBA World men's championship that was held right up the road from me in Indianapolis, Argentina shocked the world by beating Team USA 87-80. That shocking loss sent Team USA careening toward a sixth place finish in a FIBA tournament we were hosting on home soil. Two years later Argentina proved the 2002 game wasn't a fluke by beating Team USA in the Athens Games semifinals 89-81. The loss sent the 2000 defending Olympic champions to the bronze medal game.
Today the 'Redeem Team' got some payback for 2004. They defeated Argentina 101-81 to advance to the gold medal game against current FIBA world champions Spain. The wounded Argentines will face Lithuania for the bronze medal.
The 'Redeem Team' said they wanted to face Argentina, and in the first quarter they looked as though they would blow them right out of the arena. With the USA up by 10 in the first quarter the Argentines lost Manu Ginobili to the ankle injury that slowed him up in the NBA playoffs. They went up by as much as 21 points early in the second quarter before the defending Olympic champs made a run of their own that whittled the deficit to 46-40. Houston Rocket Luis Scola scored 28 points to keep the Argentines in the game but Team USA had too much firepower and too many people determined to wipe away the bitter memories of those past embarrassing defeats.
Team USA is now 40 basketball minutes away from fulfilling LeBron James' Olympic gold guarantee.
