A guessing game to start: Who was President of the United States the last time the men's basketball team lost a match in the Olympics?

Donald Trump?

Not correct.

Gold in Rio without defeat.

Barack Obama?

Wrong again.

Gold in Beijing and London, without defeat.

The correct answer: George W. Bush.

In the summer of 2004, in the middle of his first term in office, Team USA lost in the semi-finals to Argentina.

It was the first time that it could not win the tournament since it was able to nominate players from the Super League NBA for its squad from 1992.

And for the time being also for the last time.

The US Basketball Association then hired college coach Mike Krzyzewski - nickname: Coach K - who was always able to plan with the big names from the NBA for the next few years.

In Beijing and London, for example, with LeBron James, the best basketball player of this century to date.

The result: 24 games, 24 wins.

You should know all this if you want to evaluate what happened in the Saitama Super Arena.

Strong Europeans in the NBA

Team USA - led by Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard - lost to France on Sunday.

Close (76:83), but that doesn't change anything.

Because people are no longer used to that in their American homeland during the Olympic Games, the discussions started immediately.

And so, as is so often the case in such moments, the question remains: What can be said in the small about the big?

There arguably two lessons to be learned from this match.

One has to do with basketball.

The other one doesn't.

For one thing, North American and European basketball have converged. To be clear: the NBA still has the strongest players. But there are now many more Europeans among them than before. They shape the game. In the past three years, the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo (twice) and the Serb Nikola Jokic have each been voted the most valuable player in the league.

For France, the center Rudy Gobert took care under the basket on Sunday, who has been named Defender of the Year three times in the NBA in the past four seasons.

It was therefore very pleasant that the US coach Gregg Popovich, who replaced Coach K, later defended himself in the press conference against the description of the defeat as “surprising”: “I don't understand the word.

That offends the French as if we had to beat them by 30 points.

It's an outstanding team. ”That's right.

Popovich is not one who believes in American exceptionalism anyway.

Not in basketball and certainly not outside of it.

In the United States, on good days you still play like from another continent, but no longer like from another planet.

And so on to the other lesson.

In this second summer of the pandemic, one should continue to assume nothing.

Not even gold for Team USA.

In some ways it could be the games of surprises.

The virus and its consequences are unpredictable.

Even the perfect Simone Biles did not do perfect gymnastics in her preliminary fight.

Of course, Team USA, which will meet Iran this Wednesday (6.40 a.m. in the FAZ-LIveticker for the Olympics, on ARD and on Eurosport), is still the big favorite, but it has already lost another title: that of the most exciting player.

On Monday Luka Dončić made 48 points in one game.

For Slovenia.