Basketball was invented at a 
YMCA school in Massachusetts in 
1891 and became an Olympic sport
 in 1936.  For the first seven
 Olympics it was played, the
 Americans dominated this sport,
 which they had invented, and lost
 for the first time in 1972, to the
 Soviets, in perhaps the most
 controversial basketball game ever
 played.  The U.S. protested an
 extra 3 seconds added to the
 clock which allowed the Soviets to
 score a final basket and win the
 game, and the Gold, by 1 point. 
 The U.S. team refused to accept
 their Silver Medal at the Awards
 ceremony, and to this day, none of
 the players on that team have
 accepted their second place medals.

A much happier result took place in
 Barcelona in 1992, where for the
 first time, Olympic basketball was
 open to professional players.  This
 gave the U.S. the opportunity to
 assemble its finest NBA players,
 including Magic Johnson, Larry
 Bird, Patrick Ewing, Charles
 Barkley and Michael Jordan, who
 put on a show for their millions of
 fans, and showed the world just
 how good the "Dream Team" was. 
 The U.S. easily won the Gold,
 firmly reestablishing their
 preeminence in the sport they had
 invented one hundred years
 before.