…the only two teams … who *might* possibly give the Dream Team a series [were] Dream Team III, with much of Dream Team I plus Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal, who probably should have been on the roster in lieu of the more politically-correctly chosen Christian Laettner in ‘92; and the Redeem Team of 2008, Generation Y’s own Dream Team.

So through the magic of number-crunching, we can kinda sorta know who wins in a battle of 1992 Team USA vs. 2008 Team USA. Who wins in a best-of-seven series? Click here to find out.

(Truth is, you can probably guess as to the final result, but BiE was a bit surprised at the specifics.)

While the Iranian national basketball federation relies heavily on American players to help improve the level of play in the domestic Super League, the Iran basketball bosses decided to name a Serbian as national team coach for the second time.

Matic replaces compatriot Rajko Toroman after stops as coach with Estonian side BC Kalev, the Polish national team, Rhein Energie Cologne, Partizan and Red Star, as well as a term as assistant for the Yugoslav national team in 2001 (EuroBasket champs) and 2002 (world champions).

Matic will take over the work that Toroman started. Toroman guided Iran to the 2007 Asian Championship title, getting an automatic bid for the 2008 Olympics; this was the first time the Iranians reached the Olympics in over 50 years. And even though Iran went winless in China, the country’s game gained recognition.

Center Hamed Haddadi was signed to a contract with the Memphis Grizzlies, becoming the first Iranian to make the NBA. And forward Samad Nikkhah Bahrami played part of this season in the French league with Pau Orthez before going back to Iran.

Toroman said the Iranians were able to improve on the one hand because of the competition of playing with and against Americans in the domestic league. But it was the Serbian’s tactics which helped Iran knock off the second-biggest Asian power, Lebanon, to reach the Olympics; China had already qualified as hosts.

And now with Matic, the Iranians are looking to build themselves into an Asian powerhouse and qualify for the 2010 World Championship in Turkey.

The group phase was the All-Star showing for the USA, as the top teams did not go in with all their forces while Team USA tried to destroy anybody and amazed the (Chinese) fans with their dunks and blocks. While Europeans discussed traveling violations by LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and others, the US press and fans started to talk again about absolute domination of Team USA.

With the start of the medal round, the games were getting more intense and the level of playing increased. While Team USA had little trouble advancing to the semis, Australia showed that the Redeem Team was beatable, for one half. Argentina gave them a good fight and the game was as important for the US players as for the players around Manu Ginobili that ended the USA’s olympic run for gold in 2004. Missing Manu did not suppress the Argentineans’ hope until deep into the last quarter.

And then, this morning, a final for the ages. Two teams that were highly motivated, driven by success. Spain, the current world champion, led by a 17-year-old point guard against a US team that does not know the word “defeat.” And we saw a basketball beauty with wild three-point shots, hard fouls and spectacular plays. And a US team that had to give everything they had and go to very big plays of Kobe Bryant to win the gold medal back.

Despite the once-again questionable non-calls on the traveling, despite all the arrogant talk and look of Team USA, despite the Spanish flopping and all the other random stuff, this was one of the most exciting basketball games I have seen in a long time. I can’t wait for London 2012. but let’s first hope we will see this US team wanting to reconquer the World Championship title in 2010 in Turkey. In a way different atmosphere against even more pumped up European teams, everything is set for a big basketball party to come in two years.

Congratulations to Team USA for the gold medal, congratulations to Spain for never giving up and showing us the best plays of the finals, congratulations to Argentina and their bronze medal as a final punctuation on a tremendous generation. But finally also congratulations to Lithuania for their 5th Olympic semifinal in their fifth participation ever. Losing five times at this stage must be a tough feeling to handle.

We will see you all back in 2010 in Istanbul, or at latest 2012 in London. Thank you, Beijing, and goodbye China!

The Gold Medal game will feature the current World Champion Spain and the Gasol brothers against the USA Redeem Team that wants to get back the Gold Medal they lost in 2004 against Argentina.

• Let’s start with the play of the semis, Andres Nocioni blocking Kobe Bryant on the reverse dunk.
• Dwyane Wade speaks to the Wall Street Journal about his Chinese experience.
• Team USA about the gold medal game against Spain.
• Lithuania, once again, losing in the semifinals. What a sad story for the little country of only three million people, but three million basketball players. I can only wish for them to win the bronze medal. It was not their day in the semis again: With free throws 44-26 in favor of Spain, three players fouled out and Linas Kleiza disqualified after two technicals, it was tough to beat the world champions.
• The women’s final will be played between Team USA and Australia this afternoon. The two best teams in the world will play for the gold medal.
• Ricky Rubio made the incredible move from U16 European Youth Championships Finalist in 2006 to Olympic Games finalist in just two years. While some players wait a lifetime for such a step, the Spanish supertalent did it at the tender age of 17.
• Dirk Nowitzki will not play for the German national team in “the near future.” He wants to concentrate now on his second dream: the NBA Championship. I won’t be surprised to see him back at Eurobasket 2011 in order to qualify for London 2012, though.
• Talking about London 2012, FIBA is trying to assemble a 16-team tournament, according to FIBA officials.

BallinEurope will cover the Spain vs. Lithuania starting 2.pm central European time while the following blogs will live blog Team USA vs. Argentina:

(still to come – nobody has announced a live blog yet in the US)

The day started with the game between Spain and Croatia. And Spain came up with a nice 13-point win over a Croatian team that lost the game already in the first quarter where the Spanish built their lead to qualify for the semis. What may be a bit surprising is the fact that Aito still prefers Rudy and Ricky to Navarro and Calderon in the guard rotation. The Barcelona returner has played a disappointing tournament so far but his scoring is absolutely needed if Spain wants to go for a medal.

Lithuania won over China, ending the tournament for Yao Ming and his friends. This elimination was felt to be a big disappointment for China. In reports I read about the game, Chinese spectators left the arena before the end of the game because they saw no possibility of winning this one; Chinese media were very harsh with Yao Ming and coach Kazlauskas because of the “non-development” over four years ago, when China was also eliminated in the final eight. Additionally, taking Yao Ming out in the second half in the last group game against Greece was also heavily criticized, because an eventual win over Greece would have given China a virtual 5/6th place, which would have been an improvement.

USA had to battle for 19 minutes in order to break Australia in the third quarterfinal. A run in the last minute of the 2nd quarter and another three-point festival to start the second half was enough to get the needed advantage over the Boomers. The three-point shooting was not there at the beginning, but Team USA improved over the game to finish with a proper 41% team shooting from behind the arc. For Australia, it was once again young Pat Mills as top scorer with 20 points.

And then there was the only thriller of the day: Argentina versus Greece. And I saw a second half of total beauty with a frustrating ending. At two points behind with eight seconds to go, it was Vassilis Spanoulis who had the shot of the game but his three-point attempt only hit the rim. I was surprised that there was no other option in the Greek playbook than just attempting a “normal” three-point shot, and so the game ended a bit abruptly. But in the minutes prior, Argentina, with Carlos Delfino great in the money time, and Greece were going for some basketball beauties.

So now, we will see Argentina face Team USA in the semis in an awaited duel, while Spain will play against Lithuania. While in the first game, Coach K’s guys are the favorites, it’s a bit tighter in game 2. But I think that Lithuania is going to win this one because of the above-mentioned situation in the Spanish backcourt.

• The demonstration of force delivered by the USA against Spain on Saturday may have been boring or impressive, depending on how you look at it. But the main thing for most US observers was Ricky Rubio as they could see him play for the first time. And if check around the net, you will find a lot of articles about the young Spanish phenomenon: Ricky-gnition, I’m just a kid, Brandon Jennings or Ricky Rubio?, NBA star of the future, the Next Pete Maravich, GS Warriors should have a look at Spain’s Rubio, Hard to compare this 17-year-old, and so on and so on….
• Ramunas Siskauskas with the 1-on-1 of the tournament.
• Steffen Hamann shows that he can hit some shots; unfortunately it was not enough to advance his team to the quarterfinals.
• Chris Bosh explains why Team USA won against Spain: You don’t want to lose against your best friends.
• I guess you’ve already seen the official mascots of the Olympic games? Some people think that they are really funny. Well, I always think about these guys when I see them…
• Yao and Yi winning the decisive game for China against Germany.
• Speaking of Germany, the game today against Team USA may be the last in the national team uniform for Dirk Nowitzki. It will certainly be the last for Patrick Femerling and Pascal Roller, as both declared the end of their international career after the Olympics, while Nowitzki is not quite sure if he will continue. The frustration after the elimination against China was so great, however, that Nowitzki said he can’t imagine himself playing Eurobasket 2009 in Poland after having entering the Olympic Stadium in front of 90,000 people.
• Mali qualified for the Olympic Women’s tournament but ended the trip to Beijing without a win. If you’ve seen how the ladies from Africa had to prepare their tournament, you can understand the gap between them and the other teams (via American Arena).

After the terrible loss against China, Team USA – a team that even convinced or suprised the biggest “haters” – is waiting in the last game of group play. Sportingbet’s odds for a win of Germany is 15.00 – a US win equals to … 1.00 – meaning you will not make a dime on betting on Team USA. 

At least Germany is not the only team with bad odds like that – another team is Angola .. way to go Germany!

Stiil, here is the live blog of Pascal Roller, Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Kaman’s last game wearing the German “Adler”.