It was finally time for the Olympic games to be played with the United States looking for a third straight Gold Medal.  The opener against China was a decisive win as expected.  The next game against Venezuela proved to be more of a challenge at the start as the teams were tied after one quarter before the game was blown wide open to the predicted margin.  The team knew that the two weakest opponents in the group stages had already been beaten and that the next three games would be tougher.  That was very clear early against Australia, which held leads for a significant portion of the game before the Americans came back and then pulled away in the final minute.  The team had a strong start against Serbia in the next game, but progressively let their opponents back into the game, seeing a potential game-tying shot miss at the buzzer.  The team had a firm grip on the group lead, but still were left with many questions to answer after letting France hang on all game long for a second straight three point win to finish the group phase.

With two full days of rest between stages of the competition, criticism of the team had plenty of time to be formulated from all quarters.  A greater focus was put on some of the more uncommon practices that the program had adapted over the years.  Player selection was also raised as an issue despite the fact that player unavailability had burned through the entire available roster of players and once again required emergency measures to fill out all of the spots.  The players used the time to re-focus and work on some tactical adjustments for the critical upcoming games.

The first knockout round opponent was Argentina in the Quarterfinals.  Doubts were raised again as the veteran group that had previously haunted the United States took the early lead, but the team recovered and won rather comfortably.  The next opponents were the silver medalists of the last two Olympics, Spain.  It was another close game between the two teams, but the Americans denied them again, leading for nearly the whole game even though it was close throughout.  Serbia was the opponent for the final, a rematch of the last game of the world championship two years ago.  As was the case in that game, it was close early before the United States established their rhythm on their way to a blowout win.

Even though there were some tighter moments in the third time around, the United States firmly re-established themselves at the top of the basketball world with a decade of dominance.  After the disappointment of 2004, three Olympic Gold Medals were secured along with two World Championships.  The lack of preparation and respect for opponents that characterized the previous setup was torn down and a new philosophy was installed.  As a result, continuity among staff and players was an important factor in rebuilding the program.  With a new staff transition set to take place in time for the next set of tournaments, it will be important to continue to carry the lessons from the process of this period to continue to have results that match the talent level

The time for the Olympics is finally approaching after the other countries completed a grueling process to grab the remaining spots in the tournament.  The United States already clinched their spot two years ago and hosts Brazil also secured an automatic slot.  After seven teams clinched spots through their federation tournaments last summer, eighteen teams fought for the last three spots in separate tournaments.  Serbia, which reached the final of the World Championship, hosted one of the tournaments in Belgrade, running the table and grabbing their spot with relative ease.  It was a trickier task for Croatia as they faced several difficult opponents in Turin before prevailing in overtime against the hosts and taking that spot.  Europe made it a clean sweep of the additional spots after the tournament in Manila as France avoided a few rough patches and took care of business.

After those three teams were decided, they were drawn into the groups alongside the nine other qualifiers for the first stage of the tournament.  The United States already knew that it would face the champions of the Oceania, Americas, and Asia tournaments in Australia, Venezuela, and China.  Of the three qualifiers, France and Serbia were added to Group A to complete the picture.  Croatia was then drawn into Group B along with African champions Nigeria, European champions Spain, Brazil, and both teams that qualified as runners up at the federation level, Lithuania and Argentina.  The first stage will be a round robin tournament within each group with the top four teams qualifying for the knockout round.  The quarterfinals will match teams from opposite groups as it will be single elimination to determine the medal winners.

With the long NBA seasons of recent years, USA Basketball opted for a slightly different approach to preparations.  Instead of calling all individual players into tryouts before the tournament, members of the pool were questioned about their availability and the final list of twelve players was announced before training camp.  While many veterans had to rule themselves out of contention after their professional seasons, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant returned with the expectation of filling leadership roles.  Many of the remaining spots were filled by players who had shown their value two years ago as Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins, and DeMar DeRozan were also added.  Paul George had been expected to be a key player in that tournament before his injury and he was finally able to return to claim a roster spot.  Players who had participated in recent national team practices also stepped up to claim spots as Jimmy Butler, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, and DeAndre Jordan joined the fray.  Injuries at the point guard position forced the committee to look into a wider range of options, choosing to bring Kyle Lowry on board.

The team then started training in earnest, enlisting the help of a young Select squad of up and coming players  to prepare them for the tournament as a camp was held in Las Vegas.  Without the need to cut players, training was fairly brief and no intra-squad game was played before the first exhibition game.  That game was against Argentina in Las Vegas as an easy win helped players get acclimated to the international game again.  That continued with four more games, strategically picking cities and opponents to showcase certain players and to allow fans around the country to get a glimpse of the team.  Wins against China in Los Angeles and Oakland were followed a homecoming for the coach in a win over Venezuela and a win over Nigeria in Houston.

The team then got ready to travel to Brazil, the culmination of a long effort that started after the 2004 Olympics to restore American dominance at the international level.  Team pride and respect for opponents were brought back into the picture after a series of difficult losses and after a hiccup in the first tournament, winning ways were resumed.  The team is favored to win a third straight Olympic Gold Medal, possibly marking the end of an era as many of the people involved will be in their current roles for the last time.