One of the most unforgettable moments in the history of international basketball came during a press conference in the 1992 Olympics, when Charles Barkley offered a comprehensive scouting report of the Dream Team’s next opponent.
“I don’t know anything about Angola,” he says, “but Angola’s in trouble.”
That grainy clip sounds as outdated as it looks now that the U.S. appears to be a team in trouble. Not since Barkley was in Barcelona and the Americans began sending their best NBA players on a mission to destroy the rest of the world in basketball have they looked so vulnerable before the Olympics.
When the Nigerian men’s national basketball team had the misfortune of facing the Americans in 2012, for example, they lost by 83 points in the single biggest Team USA beatdown since they endangered Angola. The final score was a bit closer in their tuneup for the Tokyo Games on Saturday: Nigeria 90, U.S. 87.
One shocking loss for the heavily favored Americans in a friendly exhibition was unexpected but not too unsettling. Then they lost again on Monday to Australia.
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