RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - After losing the final game of the Olympic basketball tournament to the United States for the past two Olympics, Spain's star player and six-times NBA all-star Pau Gasol hopes to break his team's runners-up streak in Rio de Janeiro.
Gasol is in good company, as he is one of a record-high 34 current players from the National Basketball Association playing on teams hoping to outdo the U.S. men, who have won gold in five of the past six Olympics but lost out in 2000 to Argentina, a result that led to deep soul-searching and the reorganisation of the nation's Olympic basketball programme.