'What did we just watch?' - The bronze that broke USA Basketball - ESPN

Editor's note: This story was originally published in August 2019.

After the Dream Team's Olympic gold medal in 1992, USA Basketball continued to coast along in international play, remaining undefeated whenever NBA players represented the country, winning gold at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. Then, at the 2002 FIBA World Championships in Indianapolis, an American team led by Paul Pierce and Michael Finley and coached by George Karl suffered losses to Spain, Argentina and Yugoslavia en route to a sixth-place finish.

Two years later, the NBA and USA Basketball hoped to keep America's post-1992 Olympic record perfect at the 2004 Athens Games, but several prominent players declined invitations, in part due to security concerns over attending the first Olympic Games after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The roster that head coach Larry Brown and lead assistant Gregg Popovich took to Greece proved to be flawed and hastily assembled, led by Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury and captain Tim Duncan, along with late additions LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade, all coming off their rookie NBA seasons.

Although Team USA was able to salvage bronze with a victory over Lithuania in the third-place game, the 2004 Olympics was widely deemed a disaster.

The debacle became a turning point for USA Basketball.

Note: This previously unpublished oral history comes from reporting by Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew and Dan Klores for their acclaimed book "BASKETBALL: A Love Story," available now in hardcover and in paperback Oct. 15 via Penguin Random House and wherever books are sold.

Luis Scola, Argentina forward: The first time I played against [Team USA] was in '99 in Puerto Rico. We were trying to qualify to the Olympics in 2000.