Philadelphia 76ers U.S. Olympic Basketball History

By George Kondoleon | Aug 6, 2016

A look at the Philadelphia 76ers’ Olympic Basketball history leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The Philadelphia 76ers saw two of their players, Jahlil Okafor and Jerami Grant, be chosen to the 2016 U.S. Men’s Select Team, but none set to represent the United States in this upcoming Olympics, although Philadelphia-native Kyle Lowry will be playing. The Philadelphia 76ers will see their new additions in Dario Saric (Croatia) and Sergio Rodriguez (Spain) face off on Sunday. The team has had their fair share of history in the Olympics, even though some players weren’t quite Philadelphia 76ers at the time of their Olympic appearances.

In fact, the Philadelphia 76ers had seen just two players that were on their roster at the time of the Olympics in Allen Iverson and Andre Iguodala. Iverson was part of the disappointing 2004 Olympic team that fell to Argentina in the Semi-Finals, leading to an underwhelming bronze medal in Athens. Iverson averaged 13.8 points, 2.5 assists, and 1.4 steals per game as the Argentinian team that defeated Iverson and the U.S. went on to beat Italy in the gold medal game.

Iguodala was one of the last men off the bench of the dominate 2012 gold medal-winning U.S. team. The team bolstered LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, and Russell Westbrook, among other all-star caliber players.

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Iguodala found it hard to get on the court, averaging just 12 minutes per game, second least only to Anthony Davis, who yet to play on an NBA court. Iguodala did win a gold medal, however, and that won’t be taken away from him. Iguodala would be traded to the Denver Nuggets a month a later in a four-team deal that brought Andrew Bynum to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Charles Barkley was another player that could fall under the same category as Iverson and Iguodala, Olympic-wise. Barkley was famously part of the 1992 “Dream Team” that included 11 Hall of Fame players. As expected, the Dream Team destroyed every single team averaging a 51.5 point differential.

Barkley averaged 16.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. Barkley, however, was traded by the Philadelphia 76ers to the Phoenix Suns a week before the Olympics started, bouncing him out of the “Philadelphia 76ers in the Olympics” category.

As well as in the ’92 Olympics, Barkley was the only former-Sixer to win two gold-medals by leading the ’96 team to glory in Atlanta. Other former/soon to be Philadelphia 76ers to represent the U.S. team included first overall picks in Luke Jackson and Doug Collins, and Mel Counts.

The Philadelphia 76ers are starting to grow more and more internationally, and could see even more of their roster in the next Olympics. Without including U.S. born players, the team has Dario Saric, Ben Simmons, Timothe-Luwawu-Cabarrot, Sergio Rodriguez, Joel Embiid, and Nik Stauskas who could all be representing their respective countries in 2020.

Until then, the Philadelphia 76ers will be rooting for their players to succeed but will ultimately be hoping for a USA victory with connections to Jerry Colangelo.

Here is the schedule for the USA Men’s Basketball team and the Croatian/Spanish teams (ET).

Saturday, August 6th

USA vs. China at 6 p.m.

Sunday, August 7th

Croatia vs. Spain at 6 p.m.

Monday, August 8th

USA vs. Venezuela at 6 p.m.

Tuesday, August 9th

Spain vs. Brazil at 1:15 p.m.
Croatia vs. Argentina at 9:30 p.m.

Wednesday, August 10th

USA vs. Australia at 6 p.m.

Thursday, August 11th

Croatia vs. Brazil at 1:15 p.m.

Spain vs. Lithuania at 6 p.m.

Friday, August 12th

USA vs. Serbia at 6 p.m.

Saturday, August 13th

Spain vs. Lithuania at 6 p.m.

Croatia vs. Nigeria at 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, August 14th

USA vs. France at 1:15 p.m.

Monday, August 15th

Spain vs. Argentina at 6 p.m.

Croatia vs. Lithuania at 9:30 p.m.

Make sure to follow Section 215 on Twitter (@sec215) for more reminders on Philadelphia 76ers-related Olympic Basketball .