Charles Cutteridge contemplates why basketball is the only sport to create an 'invincible' team.

There are very few sports which actively entertain the idea of “dream teams”. That is to say that assembling the very finest talents of a single sport into one team is rare. American basketball is unique in this regard; the very idea being entrenched into the history of the NBA with the annual “all-star” exhibition, something which appeals to us as fans by entertaining the very notion of creating the perfect team.

Nevertheless whilst this may be true, the all-star game is less about playing good basketball and more about paying homage to the outstanding talents of the previous year; an exhibition where no one wants to get injured, simply make flashy highlight reels. However, American National Basketball recruits the same calibre of team (perhaps even better) to compete in tournaments.

Since 1992, when FIBA allowed professional players to compete at the Olympics for the first time, the USA has seen dominance in international basketball arguably unparalleled in any other sport. Apart from the “nightmare team” of Athens ’04, they have finished with gold every year. The dream team of ’92 featured Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley to name but a few. They won every game by an average of 44 points. In the entire history of Olympic basketball dating back to 1936 the USA have won gold in every competition except 1972 (silver), 1988 (silver) and 2004 (bronze).

So why are they so good? Can any other sport show the dominance by one nation across its entire history to this extent? One could argue that it’s simply about talent. The NBA is an American league and all the best players play there; ipso facto, American Basketball is unbeatable.

It’s not as simple as that though: if talent was the only component necessary to winning in sport then England would not have drawn with the USA at the last football World Cup, France would have disposed of the Tongans at the rugby World Cup, and so on and so forth. It takes more than talented individuals playing together; it takes a talented team, a completely different thing, to dominate .

However for a nation to do it consistently over so many generations, it comes from a collective national passion for the game, and exceptionally determined players. To succeed as an NBA player, of course you have to be an exceptional athlete, but perhaps more importantly you have to have the desire to be the best, the commitment to realize your potential and the determination to break into one of the most competitive leagues in the world. What’s more, once you get there you cannot choke as there is nowhere to hide.

Analysts brutally scrutinize every part of your game, and you are consistently ranked in every aspect of basketball. Points per game, assists per game, rebounds per game, steals per game and blocks per game are just a few of the statistics available for all to see on the NBA website, which is updated almost instantaneously after every match.

It’s not just the NBA however; the same is true for all American sports. NFL, MLB and the NHL are all the same. No other nation picks apart their players to this extent on a daily basis. To succeed as a professional sportsman in America therefore you must be at the very top of every aspect of your game or the sporting world will pick you to pieces. This is why America dominates international basketball: constant evaluation of every aspect of a player’s game driving him to excel.

A few days ago the 2012 Olympic squad was announced featuring possibly the strongest line up since Jordan’s Dream Team of ’92. The squad includes Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. They have the most prodigious scoring talents in the world but there is more to basketball than scoring. The NBA considers an assist just as important as a basket, a block just as exciting as a dunk and as a result players share the ball, spread the floor and work hard for something as simple as a lowly rebound. Furthermore they do this day in day out in one of the most competitive leagues in the world.

Invincible is not a term often used with justification regarding team sport; every team is fallible. Yet this latest USA squad certainly looks “invincible” on paper. Let’s see if anyone can compete with them this summer.