Basketball
Olympic sport
since 1936
Basketball is tied with a few other games being the fifth newly added sport into the summer Olympics based on its year. For 36 years the basketball was only allowed to be played by men. The U.S was the best at this game until the summer of 1972 when the Soviet Union took home the gold. To think the U.S had enough disappointment they lost again to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1988. The sport finally opened to professionals and the U. S created the “Dream Team." The “Dream Team” consisted of Michael Jordon, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. With this team the U.S got vengeance and brought home the gold. Since the women’s basketball Olympics joined in1976 it is not so exciting.
