Dime my friend, you appear to put too much faith in just being a great athlete. Yes, it means something, can mean a lot, but it's not the be all end all in TEAM SPORTS.
I've played basketball all my life and seen extremely athletic teams at all levels, high school, college and pro get their collective arse's handed to them numerous times by less athletic teams. That's why discipline, playing together and good coaching are just as important as being a great athlete. Angola had one of the most athletic teams in Beijing and they went nowhere. I guess Angola would disagree since just qualifying for the tournament is a huge accomplishment on the world stage. The idea that USA has some gigantic advantage by having all these superior athletes in the 21st century seems well... outdated. Russia won the basketball European championship over Spain this past year with an African-American point guard who hit the winning buzzer shot. Obviously, many Olympic teams can draw athletes from all continents besides their home turf - another reason any supposed USA athletic monopoly is history.
When I was in high school and college I was considered a very good athlete on my teams. Kind of a young Brent Barry type at around 6'4-6'5. I was surrounded by a lot of top athletes (some going on to play in NBA or Europe professionally) who were somewhat better jumpers, somewhat quicker than me - but not by huge margins. I made up for whatever small missing parts I lacked by working extremely hard in practice and just being a b-ball junky 24-7. I also could shoot better from the field and free throw line than 80%-90% of those so-called better athletes around me and was never intimidated by the competition. Several of my coaches told me because of my skill, athleticism, work ethic and attitude my upside was whatever I wanted it to be. As I got further along in college I decided to make hitting the books hard much a priority than bouncing a round ball endlessly - so I'll never know if I would have ended up a true Brent Barry-like clone.
If I had to single out one thing that made me MOST successful as I grew on the basketball court from about the 10th grade in H.S. it was coaching. When I had superior coaching I flourished. When I lacked good coaches, or ended up on the wrong page in some system not maximizing my talents, I suffered some set backs.
I think this USA Redeem Team, as great as they were, as athletic as all get out, might very well have lost this final game against Spain if Coach K was not steady and solid at the helm.
