Coach K’s importance to USA basketball is not necessarily his ability to coach, but to manage all the superstars into playing team basketball. Coach K, despite coming from the college level, is a coach that receives top level respect from every player on the team. As a result, he can motivate the team in the right direction.

I argue that emotional motivation, such as revenge, won’t be able to do the job. Especially on the world stage, which is secondary to the NBA. The 2004 team should have been motivated to win, anticipating the massive amounts of shame that would happen if they lose. Well, they still lost. Also, revenge itself could only be applicable for 4 players on the team who played on the 2004 squad.

Larry Brown, who coaches NBA players every day, had players that never bought into winning gold and came up short.