PARIS — In a small, fluorescent-lit gymnasium north of Paris, Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve was asked about her team’s biggest advantage at the Olympics.
Depth, she paused. No, size.
“1A, 1B,” she decided.
Reeve wasn’t wrong. With three players taller than 6’4″ and plenty of guards in the 6-foot range, Team USA will have an advantage of one to five inches in height and length over just about every opponent who steps on the floor at these Olympics. And as for depth, other countries have continued to build talented rosters over the years and while they may be able to compete well with the U.S. starting five for a long time, the real hit is when Reeve brings in backups and rotation players who can’t keep up with their 6-10s. You’ll feel something. Oh, you thought it was hard to stop those five WNBA All-Stars? Well, how about trying five more? And two more for good measure?
The U.S. also has two of the world’s best players in A’ja Wilson and Brianna Stewart, the most experienced Olympian in Diana Taurasi, and four players from the two-time WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces (including Wilson).
So, yes, as usual, Team USA will have a lot of advantages at these Olympics before we even begin to talk about the legacy this team will leave behind at these Olympics.
Because no dynasty in international basketball has been more dominant than the U.S. women’s team in the current sport. The women have won gold medals in seven consecutive Olympics, and each successive victory has raised expectations (and assumptions).
The U.S. team hasn’t lost an Olympic game (including pool play) since the 1992 Barcelona Games. The closest they’ve had to an Olympic game since their gold medal run in 1996 was a four-point win over Russia in 2004, but such close games are rare. In just three of the past seven Olympics, they’ve held their opponents to single-digit losses.
So it’s not just a metaphor when I say that Team USA women’s basketball knows nothing but Olympic gold. It’s true for most of this list. When Team USA last lost an Olympic game (August 5, 1992), only three players on the roster were still alive (and Alyssa Thomas was just four months old at the time).
But for all its historical and current advantages, Reeve is well aware of the downsides of having a country overflowing with female basketball players.
Because Team USA has such a deep pool of players, not only do they have the final 12 players on their Olympic roster, but they also rotate more players between the four-year cycles between Olympics than any other country. When the team’s roster was announced in June, none of the 12 had actually been to a camp together before. And when they went to the All-Star Game earlier this month, the 12 had only practiced with the entire roster twice. That kind of shortened preparation time affects chemistry (it was very evident in the game against WNBA All-Star).
“Talent isn’t going to be the reason we win,” Cheryl Reeve said of Team USA. “Talent chemistry is going to be the reason we win.” (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
But Reeve knew it would be one of the team’s toughest challenges. In his first appearance on the field as Team USA’s coach in 2022, Reeve addressed the obvious with his team. They were playing against a team that knew each other better, played together more, and practiced together more, but that couldn’t be an excuse for not finding a way to work together well.
“Talent isn’t going to be the reason we win,” Reeve said. “The chemistry of talent is going to be the reason we win. And we have to work hard for that and focus on that.”
Between the All-Star Game and last week’s friendly against Germany, the group has made progress. Defensively (Reeve’s calling card) the group has looked more cohesive. Reeve, who is also the coach of the Minnesota Lynx, has leaned on her WNBA experience this season, and with just five players returning, the Lynx have come together well during the league’s two-week preseason and have put together one of the most impressive first halves of a WNBA season, winning the league-wide Commissioner’s Cup in June.
Team USA knows that its players have practiced more as a team, not only in this Olympic cycle but also with several key players playing together for many years in their pool of players from Japan, Belgium and Germany. But with the talent, depth and other advantages that Team USA has, the team will use every moment they have on the court together to accelerate their solidification and hopefully outweigh any shortcomings that may have arisen from time away.
With just 13 days left before its first match against Japan on Monday, Team USA is aiming for its eighth consecutive gold medal and will be looking to live up to the expectations of the seven teams ahead of it.
Reeve has the group trying to separate the legacy of Team USA’s 55 consecutive Olympic victories from what the group hopes to accomplish over the next two weeks. But make no mistake: The goal and expectation are the same, just as this program has been for the past 30 years. It’s a gold medal and nothing less. It’s a big win and nothing less. It’s the Team USA way and nothing less.
(Image above: Dan Goldfarb / work out; Juan Ocampo/NBAE/Getty Images; Ryan Stets/NBAE/Getty Images)
