After the disappointment of 2004 in Athens where Team USA had only won bronze, Jerry Colangelo and Coach K had come to the head of the team with the ambition to rise again. The 2006 world championships in Japan were the first time to start this revival but with a team deprived of the major stars in the league, it did not go as planned. Logically arrived in the semifinals, the Americans found Greece, winners of the blues in the quarterfinals. Led by their legends Teó Papaloukás, Vassilis Spanoulis, Dimitris Diamantidis, the Greeks achieved the feat:
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