RIO DE JANIERO — The other American basketball powerhouse began its gold-medal defense on Sunday, 24 years and two days since the last time the team suffered an Olympic loss. It would probably be useful to keep that defeat in mind, because as heavily-favored as the current group of American women is to win the gold medal here, that 1992 team was expected to be nearly as dominant.
Back then, the Unified Team — team made up of the disbanded Soviet Union — shocked the U.S. in the semifinals, solving their vaunted press and eking out the upset win, sending the American women home with a bronze that was so disappointing, forward Medina Dixon said at the time, “I don’t even think I’d carry it home.