Including exhibitions, your record with this team is 80-1. The one loss occurred pretty early in the whole journey, at the 2006 Worlds in Japan. I think Greece was the team.

Greece.

Sometimes losses clarify things. You learn more from losses than victories.

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It was a loss that put us in a position of reality. We learned from it. They were older. They knew their game better. We were not as physical. . . . Did we scout them? Yes. But not like you could. So we really reflected on everything we did. You take responsibility for what you’ve done, but you also take responsibility for what you will do as a result of what you learn.

This started the [select team] pool concept. We were too young when we lost to Greece, so we knew we had to have a combination of youth, medium [age] and old. Now we scout tournaments all over the world, [so] we know everything about the players. Then we incorporated international officials more, so instead of complaining about how the nuances of our game might be better, and why aren't [officials whistling this or] that, well, we're not going to do that, because we're not playing [the American] game. We should learn [the international] game better. So we have. And our goal in doing that was to win the gold medal, but also to win . . . the respect of the world by giving them the due they should be given.

They play really good basketball. There are terrific players and coaches all over the world. We should learn from them and not think like isolationists, like it's “our game.” It's the world's game. We play it really well, but you know what? They do too.

John W. McDonough for Sports Illustrated

Over those dozen years, how has the international game changed or improved? You remember not so long ago people said that foreign players were “mechanical.”

Even their big guys are very skilled with the ball and can play away from the basket. In their club system they don't have a college basketball organization. A young Pau Gasol in Spain or a Manu Ginobili in Argentina is in a club, learning from and playing against men, learning the entire game. There are no restrictions on how many hours a week you can work with them like we have in the NCAA. There's no AAU. And they’re always playing for their country. There's a sense of nationalism that's developed for all these teams that we have a harder time finding, because we like the Cubs and the Lakers, the Blackhawks, the Rangers, the Patriots. . . . Those players we play against feel who they play for. They own it. We have to figure out how we can get that across to our own team.

The Argentines in the tunnel . . .

Or the brotherhood that the Spanish team has. They've been playing together since they were 18, 19, a number of them. They want to be together. That's their family. We’re trying to create a family atmosphere so when our guys come back, they trust, they know their environment, they can be themselves and renew acquaintances with a number of the players but also the people who work with them.