Olympic Basketball 2012: Dream Team Comparisons Put Immense Pressure on Team USA

The United States men's basketball team already had a target on its back after cruising to the gold medal four years ago. The last thing the star-studded squad needed was more pressure to deal with, but that's exactly what they got by sparking the Dream Team debate.

It started with Kobe Bryant declaring he thought the current group of All-Stars would be able to take down the greatest basketball team ever assembled. Fellow superstar LeBron James recently followed suit, backing up the words of his teammate.

Although both players admitted it would be a competitive game, it's hard to imagine why they would get involved in the discussion when they had to know the media would blow it out of proportion. It would have been a perfect time for the typical stock, boring athlete response.

Bryant and James could have easily said it would be impossible to compare eras, how they respect what that team accomplished during its dominant run and so on. It would have been a non-story at that point.

Instead, the last two weeks have been filled with statistical analysis of the two sides, computer simulations and debate about which team would truly win. Even President Barack Obama was forced to make a pick when he attended one of the team's warmup games (he picked the Dream Team).

All of it amounts to one big distraction with play at the Olympics set to begin on Sunday. Now instead of simply having to worry about winning games, the Americans have to live up to the hype that they helped create.

It doesn't help that the opening game will be one of the team's toughest tests. Team USA goes up against a France squad that's led by Tony Parker, who's coming off one of the best seasons of his career for the San Antonio Spurs, and rising star Nicolas Batum.

While the Americans are still heavy favorites to open with a victory, Parker and Batum have certainly heard their fair share of the Dream Team talk. Their teammates probably have as well. If not, they will get filled in.

The same goes for Spain. The Gasol brothers-led team lost to the United States in the gold-medal game four years ago and look like the Americans' main competition again this time around. They have to love that all the attention is on Team USA.

So while every other team can play freely thanks to the lack of expectations, the United States doesn't only have to win, but win big to back up their tough talk.

Even though it doesn't mean they won't win gold, it will certainly make their journey a lot more difficult.