Basketball at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games:

The United States again entered a team of NBA stars, with several players returning from the Dream Team – notably Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Karl Malone, and John Stockton. The team was dubbed by the media as “Dream Team II” but it was a lesser version of the 1992 leviathan, and in addition, the rest of the world was now beginning to catch up to the United States in basketball – even to the professional version.

After the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the former European powers were now slightly different. Though Russia had a good team, it did not qualify in 1996, and the best team among the former Soviet republics belonged to Lithuania, led by NBA stars Šarūnas Marčiulionis and Arvidas Sabonis. Yugoslavia contributed two top contenders in Croatia and the re-formed Yugoslavia, now represented by Serbia & Montenegro, with all of the players coming from Serbia.

But in Atlanta, the United States won fairly comfortably. They dominated Group A, and won the quarter-finals against Brazil, 98-75; the semi-finals against Australia, 101-73; and the final against Yugoslavia, 95-69.