America, Basketball and Globalization
I went to bed a little early just so I could wake up in the middle of the night to watch my beloved USA basketball team featuring NBA superstars Lebron James and Kobe Bryant squeak by Spain in the Gold medal game. It was the first victory for the USA in major international competition since the Sydney Olympics in 2002. Basketball powerhouses like Spain, Greece and Argentina were well represented with their own NBA stars as were all other countries. In the 1992 Barcelona games, The "Dream Team" comprised of "Majic" Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Larry Bird steamrolled the competition with an average victory margin of over 35 points. Since then the world has caught up to the USA. They learned the game from American coaches via clinics, developed their own professional leagues and as a result sent several dozen more players to the NBA and top US colleges over the past 15 years. In 1992 there were 21 foreign born NBA players, in the 2007-08 season there were over 70! The