Another great Olympics run for a gritty team. Bear in mind that injuries kept Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Blake Griffin, Dwyane Wade, and Derrick Rose from making the trip to London.
Spain, as expected, played their A game despite sleepwalking through most of this tourney.
Everyone on Team USA deserves tremendous kudos for how they carried themselves throughout these Olympics. Teams threw everything at them, cheap shotted them, tried to goad them into fouls, technicals, etc., and they fought through it. Everyone embraced their roles. LeBron was spectacular. Durant and Carmelo were scoring machines. Kevin Love was a rebounding machine. Guys like Harden, Chandler, and Iguadala were happy to be there and played like it when they were in. Anthony Davis showed enough that I'm really excited to watch his NBA career begin in New Orleans. Chris Paul was clutch. Kobe was up and down, but he had some big games. Westbrook didn't have the Olympic performance that he had in the 2010 FIBA tournament, but he had some spectacular plays and gutted out today on sprain ankle. Deron Williams played very well as essentially the third PG (after LeBron and and Paul).
These guys have everything to lose going out and competing in these Olympics. Unlike the 1992 Dream Team, they're actually going up against experienced, well-coached, and talented teams that have a chance to win in a single-elimination format. Nevertheless, they represented our country and did so with honor and precision.
