They have done it!
The United States won the gold medal in Olympic men's basketball Sunday with a 118-107 victory over Spain.
Culminating a three-year mission to end years of embarrassment, the U.S. Olympic team survived a huge challenge from Spain, winning 118-107 Sunday in the gold-medal game.
After overwhelming everyone for seven games, the Americans led by only four points with under 2 1/2 minutes to play, then proved they could handle the close game that seemed would never come in Beijing.
Their prize: the first U.S. gold medal since the 2000 Olympics.
Nobody else had been close to the Americans in Beijing. This team's only Olympic competition had been history, in a Dream matchup with guys named Jordan, Magic, Bird and the rest of the U.S. team that dominated the Barcelona Games in 1992.
The Americans had won their first seven games by 30.3 points, including a 119-82 rout of Spain. But they never had control of this game, giving up open looks from the perimeter and plenty of points in the paint. But Bryant, who waited so long to finally wear the red, white and blue, hit two 3-pointers in a big fourth quarter to add the gold medal to the only piece of hoops hardware he didn't already own. The NBA MVP pounded his hands toward the floor in celebration at the end.
Dwyane Wade scored 27 points for the Americans, who found a much gamer Spanish team than the one they humiliated by 37 points earlier in the tournament. Kobe Bryant added 20. LeBron James scored 14 points, while Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul had 13 apiece for the Americans, who had won bronze medals in their last two international events, the 2004 Olympics and '06 world championships.
The U.S. started planning for this game after that first event, the low point in its hoops history, following a sixth-place flop two years earlier in the world championships. Jerry Colangelo was given control of USA Basketball and constructed a national team program in 2006, requiring those who wanted to play to commit to three years.
On the other hand, Argentina won the bronze with an 87-75 victory over Lithuania.
Credits to FOX Sports.
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