Twelve years after Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird led the American senior basketball team to conquer the world, the era of the U.S. Dream Team was terminated in the summer of 2004 at Athens.

Argentina beat Italy 84-69 here Saturday evening to win the Olympic men's basketball tournament, overthrowing the regime of the American professionals who had dominated the sport in the past three Olympics.

Since most of its NBA superstars had withdrawn from the squad due to various reasons, the sixth edition of the "Dream Team" series didn't look that dreamy before launching its journey to Athens. However, it was still shocking to find the American Dreamers so vulnerable.

With a stunning 92-73 loss to Puerto Rico in the opener, the United States not only had the 24-game winning streak of the Dream Team at the Olympics snapped, but also set the record of the lowest scoring and biggest trailing margin (49-27) since fielding NBA players at the Barcelona Games in 1992.

"It's a shock loss for us," said Allen Iverson.

"All the people believe we are the best, but we weren't invincible. We didn't play at all and let the opponents destroy us."

Recovering with narrow victories over Greece and Australia, the Americans suffered their second defeat, 94-90 to Lithuania, who came close to ending the Dream Team's reign at Olympics before losing 85-83 in the semi-finals of the Sydney Games in 2000.

Thanks to another preliminary victory over the lowly Angola, the three-time defending champion managed to enter the quarter-finals as fourth finisher from group B.

The Dream Team finally played like a title favorite by earning a well-deserved 102-94 victory over the previously unbeaten Spain in the quarter-finals through a 31-point performance from Stephon Marbury.

However, the joy did not last long as Argentina, who had beaten the United States on its way to winning the silver medal in the 2002 world championship, stood up again terminating the Americans in the semi-finals.

Marbury admitted the rest of the world was catching up.

"International basketball has changed a lot, the players are a lot better," Marbury said. "We can't doubt them."

Boosted by its second straight victory over the United States, Argentina got back what it lost in the 2002 world championship final against Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro), a gold medal.

It was the second chance in three years for Argentina to prove to the world it was the best team on the globe and this time the Argentines did not let it slip away.

Dominating from the beginning till the end, Argentina took a sweet revenge over Italy, who beat them 76-75 in the preliminaries, and lifted its first Olympic basketball trophy in history.

As Argentina emerged as the fourth champion in the Olympic basketball history, European teams continued to show their strength and determination to surpass the United States in the sport invented by Americans.

Despite the absence of Sydney silver medallist France and a stunning exit of world champion Serbia and Montenegro, four of the five European teams participating at Athens reached the quarter-finals as top finishers from preliminaries, where European champion and runner-up Lithuania and Spain remained unbeaten.

"Teams from Europe and South America have found the right way to develop their basketball," said NBA star center Yao Ming.

"The Americans' lead has been shaken," he added.

China, the only representative from Asia, pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament by ousting Serbia and Montenegro, who was playing without Peja Stojakovic and Vlade Divac, from the quarter-finals.

Matching its best Olympic finish of eighth, the young Chinese team got some consolation after losing three of their five preliminary matches by 25-plus points.

Despite the overall lackluster performance of China, two-time NBA all-star Yao Ming proved himself again by averaging 20.7 points and 9.3 rebounds in seven games.

The Athens Olympic women's basketball was much more predictable than the men's. The United States emerged as the winner again to extend its title winning streak at the Olympics to three.

Australia repeated its silver finish in Sydney after a brave battle against the U.S. in the final, while Russia and Brazil, who finished third and fourth respectively, were the only other teams in the same class with the United States and Australia.

Source: Xinhua