The NBA superteams that were built through the Olympic Games

This summer, at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Team USA will bring out the heavy artillery by bringing together the biggest American stars from the NBA. An association of stars whose primary objective will obviously be to bring home gold, but which could also be at the origin of the formation of future superteams in the NBA. We have already seen it several times in the past: from the Miami Heatles to Kevin Durant’s Warriors, here are the great armadas that are being built with the help of Team USA.

It was really from 2010 that we were able to realize the impact that Team USA could have in the formation of superteams in the NBA. That summer, two years after the Beijing Olympics, LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in Miami. A real earthquake that shook the NBA and gave birth to other armadas in the decade that followed.

➡️ 256 pages
➡️ around ten chapters
➡️ more than two years of work

All this to tell you the crazy adventure of one of the legendary teams in NBA history: the Heatles of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh! 🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/Vn6eiDewkY

— Nico TrashTalk 🏀 (@nicolasmeichel) April 24, 2023

The Miami “Heatles”

• The stars : LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh

Friends from the 2003 Draft, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh had a string of experiences with the national team during their early careers. The first two were part of Team USA from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, while the trio played together at the 2006 World Cup and especially at the 2008 Olympics with the famous “Redeem Team”. During the latter, they won the gold medal by putting the United States on top of the world, thus sharing one of the greatest moments of their careers. This strengthened their bonds on and off the court, as well as their desire to one day play in the same jersey in the NBA.

Scheming behind the scenes with their respective agents to all three become free agents in the summer of 2010, LeBron, Wade and Bosh end up meeting at Pat Riley’s house in Miami to form the Heatles. They won two NBA titles in four Finals between 2010 and 2014.

‘Redeem Team’ highlights from Beijing 2008 were someting else. 🤩#TheRedeemTeam | @TeamUSA | @usabasketball pic.twitter.com/1P8QCsUpD5

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) October 7, 2022

The “Big Three” version of the Cavaliers

• The stars : LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love

In 2014, after four years in Miami, LeBron James decided to return home to Cleveland. He thus joins Kyrie Irving but knows that to truly play for the title, he needs a third star capable of assuming a role similar to that of Chris Bosh with the Heat. This third star is called Kevin Love. LeBron played alongside Love during the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Together, they won the gold medal and got a cool taste of what living together in the NBA could be like. With his qualities as an outside shooter, rebounder and passer, Love has a complementary profile to the King.

In the summer of 2014, a few weeks after LeBron’s return to Ohio, Kevin Love was transferred to Cleveland in exchange for Andrew Wiggins. The Big Three LeBron – Kyrie – Love will play three finals in a row (four for LeBron and Love) with an NBA title won in 2016 against the Golden State Warriors.

This really one of the most legendary pictures ever 🔥 (via playoffs.silvio/TT) pic.twitter.com/AWf92TVwR7

— Overtime (@overtime) July 25, 2022

The Warriors and their “five of death”

• The stars : Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala

The “Death Lineup”, also known as the “Hamptons Five”, represents the lethal combination proposed by the Warriors between 2016 and 2019. A combination composed of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant.

If the Splash Brothers and Draymond were all drafted by Golden State, Iguodala and KD arrived via Free Agency. The first signed with the Warriors in 2013, three years after working alongside Curry during the 2010 World Cup with Team USA. As for Durant, he joined the Dubs in 2016 after playing with Iguodala in 2010 and also at the 2012 Olympic Games. KD and Curry were also teammates in 2010 at the World Cup, while Durant shared the Team USA jersey at the Olympics. 2016 with Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. All these meetings with the national team formed or strengthened bonds that allowed the Warriors to build one of the best teams in NBA history.

“With Steph, we played together in Turkey in 2010 (at the World Cup, editor’s note). We trained together in the evening, with Kevin Durant too, we were always together. We were able to see how everyone worked, I saw how much Steph loved the game. We built a very good relationship.” – Andre Iguodala, upon joining the Warriors in 2013

Between 2013 and 2019, Golden State won three NBA titles in five Finals.

For the record, know that pivot DeMarcus Cousins ​​– another star of the mid-2010s – decided to join the Warriors in 2018 after participating in the 2016 Olympics with Team USA, as well as the 2014 World Cup. he didn’t have the chance to win a ring with Golden State.

Turning Point: ‘Hamptons Five’ bring balanced attack
All five Golden State starters score at least 15-plus points as the Warriors take a 2-0 series lead.
🎥https://t.co/fBlzboleKU pic.twitter.com/Q4GC7EkwVr

— NBA TV (@NBATV) May 1, 2019

But also…

Other superteams have been formed over the last decade via (among other things) joint experiences with Team USA, without experiencing the same success as the Heatles, the Warriors or the Cavaliers. Here are a few :

• The Nets of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving decide to team up in 2019 in Brooklyn. Very friends, the two notably played together with Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. James Harden joins the New York group in 2021, knowing Durant very well with whom he played with the Thunder at the start of his career and in the Team USA jersey at the 2012 Olympics. The Bearded Man was also Kyrie’s teammate at the 2014 World Cup. Together, the three stars nevertheless only play… 16 games with the Nets (we’ll spare you the reasons) between January 2021 and February 2022.

• The Rockets of James Harden and Chris Paul (then Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook)

In 2017, Chris Paul was transferred by the Clippers to James Harden’s Rockets. A transfer which at the time raised some doubts about the compatibility of the two stars but which pleased CP3, excited at the idea of ​​playing alongside the Bearded Man. And for good reason, both showed interesting automatisms during the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni was on the Team USA staff.

“It’s a bit like with Team USA. You can say it’s not going to work, but it works, because they want it to work. I know James and Chris want it to work, and that’s enough.” –Mike D’Antoni

The Harden – Paul duo Rockets won 65 games in their first season together, before falling to the Warriors armada in the 2018 Western Conference Finals.

Star Carmelo Anthony, one of the best players in the history of Team USA, will then join Houston but his integration will go very badly. Harden and Paul would also eventually have a falling out, with the latter eventually getting traded for Russell Westbrook (who played with Harden in the Thunder and with Team USA in the 2012 Olympics) in 2019. Houston would never play in the conference finals again.

• The Thunder of Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony

After the departure of Kevin Durant in 2016, Russell Westbrook transformed into an MVP but found himself a little lonely in Oklahoma City. But it was then that the Thunder – in 2017 – chose to mount a transfer to recover Paul George first, then Carmelo Anthony. The latter, impatient to leave New York, assures the Thunder that he is ready to wear the colors of OKC. It is therefore in Oklahoma that Melo finds PG – Team USA teammate at the 2016 Olympics – and Westbrook, with whom he won gold at the 2012 Olympics.

Anthony hopes to take the “FIBA Melo” costume alongside Russ and George, but the mayonnaise will never really take hold. The trio will only stay together for one year, resulting in an elimination in the first round of the 2018 Playoffs.

“I spent a lot of time with Melo with Team USA. This is where our relationship comes from. Melo is real. He sacrificed a lot. He wasn’t the problem.” – Paul George on the failure of OKC’s Big Three

• The Suns of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal

Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal were part of the group tasked with winning gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Bealou ultimately was unable to compete due to COVID, but Durant and Booker did well wore the colors of Team USA that summer. Both hoopers won a gold medal together and created real bonds to the point of wanting to play in the same jersey in the NBA.

They now play together in Phoenix, with KD requesting a transfer to Arizona in 2022 (he was transferred in February 2023). Bradley Beal arrived in Phoenix in the summer of 2023 after accepting a trade with the Suns (as a reminder, he has a no-trade clause). Side by side, the trio remains in a very disappointing first season but hopes to bounce back next year.

The Suns will be out in Paris.

Welcome back to the Olympic stage @KDTrey5 & @DevinBook.

🇺🇸 #USABMNT pic.twitter.com/xKlRF783Sp

— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) April 17, 2024

• The Rockets of Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley and Clyde Drexler (then Scottie Pippen)

Long before the earthquake caused by the Heatles in 2010, the Houston Rockets of the late 1990s also tried to build a superteam based on a previous Olympic experience. In an era where superstars mostly stayed with their original franchise instead of joining forces, this was out of the norm.

The Rockets recruited Charles Barkley in 1996, who had obviously participated in the 1992 Olympics with Drexler on the legendary Dream Team. Barkley also played with Olajuwon at the 1996 Olympics. Two years later, after the retirement of Clyde Drexler, it was Scottie Pippen who arrived in Houston to form a new Big Three in Texas. Pippen and Barkley had played together in the Barcelona Dream Team, while the Pippen – Barkley – Olajuwon trio was actually reunited in 1996 in Atlanta.

Despite the automatisms formed under the colors of Team USA and the two gold medals won, the Rockets version of Big Three(s) never managed to reach the NBA Finals.

Who will be the next NBA superteam?

Team USA will arrive with a veritable armada in Paris. A quick reminder of the 12 names who will wear the American tunic in a few weeks:

• Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers
• Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves
• Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat
• Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns
• Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
• Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers
• Jrue Holiday, Boston Celtics
• Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers
• Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns
• LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
• Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
• Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers

If the NBA context has changed a lot since the 2010 decade, parity is more important than ever and the creation of superteams is probably more difficult today in view of the CBA, perhaps the 2024 Olympics will be the origin of the next armada in the NBA.

Will some of these players join forces one day on a single NBA team?

Greatness Unites.

The 2024 USA Men’s National Team is here.

🇺🇸 #USABMNT pic.twitter.com/I2jOLsrcQv

— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) April 17, 2024