Report: Team USA to Play Against Spain in Exhibition Game

Team USA and Spain are the favorites to meet in the Olympic Gold Medal game this summer, but according to Yahoo! Sports, they will first meet in an exhibition game on July 24th in Barcelona: “The game will be played at 3:30 p.m. ET in the Palau Sant Jordi mountainside arena, and promises to be a spectacular, intense scene. The exhibition will coincide with the 20th anniversary celebration of Team USA’s 1992 Dream Team that transformed international basketball in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. USA Basketball is expected to invite members of that team to Barcelona for its weeklong stay in Spain. This will be the final exhibition for the two Olympic favorites before they depart later that week for the London Games. Spain lost to the U.S. 118-107 in the 2008 gold-medal game in Beijing, but the game was tight until the late stages. Spain will return its key players plus far more mature and talented stars like Ricky Rubio and Marc Gasol to join veterans Pau Gasol, Jose Calderon and newcomer Serge Ibaka. NBA players and agents involved in the pre-Olympic tour have received the itinerary, and a formal USA Basketball announcement is expected to come on All-Star weekend next week in Orlando, Fla.”