King James Foresees Gold.

Joe Namath did it. Muhammad Ali did it. Now its Lebron's turn.

What, you may ask, might these three have in common besides all being tremendous athletes? Well the first two made guarantees that their team would win on the big stage; Namath in the Superbowl, Ali did it for the World Heavy-weight Championship. This time its Lebron James at the Olympics.

The Associated Press is reporting that in a Time Magazine issue that hits newsstands on Friday, when asked if his team would win gold his response was "absolutely!"

Lebron will be chasing something that USA basketball has failed to do at the Olympics Since 2000. He will be doing so against teams like Argentina, Greece, Lithuania, and Spain, all teams who are possibly better than they have ever been in the past...they have all been very good in the past. The NBA has changed. It is no longer the NBA of the 1980's or 90's when every good player, and I mean everyone, was from the United States. Now, like many other sports (baseball and hockey come to mind), many of the best players in the game are not from the United States. You have players like Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Steve Nash, and even Tim Duncan, all outstanding players and perennial all-stars, who are all born on foreign soil.

Team USA will have their hands full at this year's Olympic games. On paper you would have to say they are the favorites to win it all, but not by as wide a margin as Lebron and company may think. We are going to need to see the Lebron James from game 7 the this year's Eastern Conference Finals in every game for team USA to win gold. I'm not talking about the numbers. He will not get the touches to score 40+ points in a game, not with Kobe Bryant on the same team. What I am talking about is the drive, the Jordan-esk glare in his eye that tells you he wants it. That glare does not come out every game. It will need to for him to "absolutely" make good on his declaration.