The 2012 Dream Team's Biggest Obstacles at the London Olympics

If Team USA doesn’t conclude the 2012 Olympics as a Dream Team, Kobe Bryant will look quite foolish.

According to Den Devine of Yahoo! Sports, Bryant claimed that this year’s American national basketball team would’ve defeated the Dream Team. Not that the bar could’ve been set any higher, but now the U.S. really has to win the gold medal.

Here are the squad’s greatest hurdles in London.

3. Argentina

Before 2008’s Redeem Team, there was the Equipo de Sueño—Spanish for "Dream Team."

In 2004, Team USA featured the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and Amar’e Stoudemire. Sound stacked? They were, but Manu Ginobili and the Argentineans weren’t intimidated. They went on to upset the Americans in the semifinals by the score of 89-81.

LeBron, D-Wade and Melo weren’t nearly as talented as they are now, but still. Argentina has the NBA talent to scare the U.S. again.

Of course, there’s still Ginobili.

Gregg Popovich’s favorite Argentinean is surrounded by notable names in Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino and Andres Nocioni. Another name you may or may not have heard over the past 24 hours, Pablo Prigioni, is a point guard who, according to Mark Berman of the New York Post, just signed a one-year contract with the Knicks on Wednesday.

While Argentina has plenty of perimeter talent, they don’t have a dominant big to take advantage of Team USA’s lack of length this year. It would take an extraordinary effort from Ginobili to pull off another upset.

2. France

No one could stop Tony Parker this season.

It just so happens that he matched up and burnt the Americans' top two point guards—Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook—in the postseason this past year. Against the Los Angeles Clippers, he averaged 17.3 points and 7.8 assists per game; against the Oklahoma City Thunder, he averaged 21.5 points and 6.3 assists per game.

But Parker isn’t the only threat the French will throw at the U.S.

France boasts world champion Ronny Turiaf; Boris Diaw, who aided the San Antonio Spurs in a Western Conference finals berth; Kevin Seraphin, who emerged late in the season with the Washington Wizards; and Nicolas Batum, who Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press reported agreed to a four-year, $45 million offer sheet last week with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

They also have Mickaël Gelabale, who played for the Seattle SuperSonics from 2006 to 2008. As intimidating as they sound, France would be even more of a threat if Joakim Noah, Rodrigue Beaubois and Ian Mahinmi were on the squad.

Again, while the French have plenty of professional talent, Parker would have to flat-out dominate for them to have a shot against Team USA.

1. Spain

If the Americans fail to take Spain seriously, they will lose.

The Spanish starting lineup has no glaring weakness. It features Jose Calderon, Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernandez, Pau Gasol and Marc Gasol.

They aren’t just top-heavy either. Their bench (the Three Headed Serg-Monster) includes Serge Ibaka, Sergio Rodriguez (been in and out of the NBA) and Sergio Llull, who was drafted by the Denver Nuggets back in 2009.

Calderon is one of the top assist men in the NBA every single season, and who was he surrounded with on the Toronto Raptors? Andrea Bargnani, DeMar DeRozan and…?

Exactly—Spain's arsenal provides Calderon with more weapons than he’s had for years.

One of those weapons, Navarro—aka "La Bomba"—is a Euroleague superstar. He could be in the NBA if he wanted to—he played the 2007-2008 campaign with the Memphis Grizzlies and averaged 10.9 points per game. Instead, he chooses to dominate international basketball.

The biggest reason that the Spanish are such a huge threat to Team USA’s gold medal hopes is that they’re one team that has the talent down low to give the U.S. nightmares. Tyson Chandler is the one true center on the American roster, and Marc Gasol is more talented than he is. Pau Gasol’s length at power forward could also cause Team USA problems.

The Americans still deserve to be heavy favorites, though. While skeptics ask who’ll stop the Gasol brothers, who on Spain will stop Kobe, LeBron and Kevin Durant?

Argentina, France and Spain all are capable of knocking off the Americans, but when it’s all said and done, expect Team USA to take care of business in London.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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