Team USA may have won the gold at the 2024 Olympics this summer, but Shaquille O’Neal is not too happy with their performance. As he explained on ‘The BIG podcast,’ he expects Team USA to dominate the games against every opponent.
“I’m not even paying attention to the Olympics,” said O’Neal. “[I have a dominant personality. I don’t care how you are, whatever, my cousin Kenny just had this argument upstairs. My cousin said, ‘The world is getting close’ but I don’t think it is. The fact that [USA Basketball won] 97-95, you only beat South Sudan by one [possession]. Come on, bro. That’s never supposed to happen.”
Shaq says he wasn’t paying attention to the Olympics.
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Shaquille O’Neal is arguably the most dominant player in basketball history. During his career, the 7’1″ big man averaged 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game on 58% shooting. During his prime with the Lakers, he won three championships alongside Kobe Bryant and established a dynasty that is still celebrated by fans today.
For Shaq, he sees things through a very specific lens, and anything less than total dominance, in his mind, is akin to failure. And failure is what he marked this summer for Team USA even though they technically won the Olympic tournament.
Starting from 1992, when FIBA rules were changed to allow NBA-level players, the USA has had a very powerful advantage in the sport. Since basketball is a predominantly American activity, the USA has had a monopoly on it for decades now, starting with the ‘Dream Team’ and going all the way to this year’s team with LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant.
But even with as stacked as the USA was this year, they almost lost several times throughout the summer. Their first major scare was against South Sudan in the exhibition stage. Thanks to impressive three-point shooting from South Sudan, they were able to hold a narrow lead over the competition for much of the game and nearly won the match down the stretch. It took a game-winning, buzzer-beating layup from LeBron James for the USA to narrowly escape with the win.
On August 8th, the knockout stage, Team USA again nearly took a loss. This time, it came against Nikola Jokic and Serbia. The 2x MVP was in his bag all night long and had the USA on their heels with play after play. Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid got hot in the end to power a comeback win in the game but things were looking bleak for a while there before the USA got it back under control.
Besides those two games, the USA was playing pretty well this summer but with the star power of their roster, people expect them to win every game by at least 10-15 points.
In the past, this wouldn’t be an issue for Team USA but with talent across the world going up, the gap is closing between the USA and other countries around the world for the game of basketball. Pretty soon, the USA may not be that far ahead in terms of star power and depth at the Olympic games. That’s why it’s more important than ever before for the game’s top athletes to represent their country and participate in the games to ensure that Team USA can keep their edge over the field.
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