By Brandon Zhu
On this day in 2000, The USA Olympic Men’s Basketball Team captured its 12th gold medal in 14 Olympic basketball competitions with an 85-75 victory over France in the gold medal game in Sydney, Australia. The U.S. team consisted of Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Ray Allen, Vin Baker, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Tim Hardaway, Allan Houston, Jason Kidd, Antonio Mcdyess, Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton, and Steve Smith. Although NBA stars Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant and others withdrew, the U.S. still dominated and went 8-0 in the entire competition. The only close call was in the semifinals when Team USA only managed to defeat Lithuania in a narrow 85-83 victory. The Lithuania upset came short when a three-point attempt by Sarunas Jasikevicius of Lithuania missed at the buzzer.