Sooner or later, people will stop measuring every U.S. Olympic basketball squad against the Dream Team.

U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski is hoping it's sooner.

"There's only one Dream Team," said Krzyzewski, an assistant coach on that fabled squad. "That was '92. The mistake that our American people make is calling every team after a 'dream team.' This isn't Rocky I, II, III and IV.

"It's Dream Team I forever — and then the next teams have to get their own identity," he said. "This team will work at developing its identity."

A lot has happened in 16 years. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and friends have moved on. More important, the world has caught up to the United States in the game it invented.

In its last three major international competitions, the U.S. has brought home two bronze medals.

To put that in perspective, consider that Lithuania won the bronze in 1992. The Americans beat the Lithuanians by 51 points in the semifinals.

The 2004 U.S. Olympic team lost three times on its way to third place. The Americans had lost two games, total, in the previous 14 Olympics.

That's not a dream, it's a nightmare.

The mission for this team as it goes to Beijing? Simple. Restore what Americans believe is their rightful place atop the international hoops podium.

"It is redemption," said guard Dwyane Wade, one of four holdovers from the 2004 Olympic squad. "That's what it is: a road to redemption. 2004 was a hurt year for a lot of us — not for just the players but for the world. A lot of people were hurt by it. So this is a redemption year. This is to let our fans (know) that we're the best in basketball still."

It's one thing to say it. It's another to prove it.

"They're expecting us to just walk on the court and just win the game," said forward Carmelo Anthony, another 2004 Olympian. "We've got to work at it. Nothing's going to come easy for us."

TRACK AND FIELD

USA IS BEST, SAYS COACH

The races are a month away, yet U.S. Olympic men's track coach Bubba Thornton says the team he's leading to the Beijing Games could rank among the best.

"Probably the strongest team we've ever sent to the Olympic Games," Thornton said yesterday while reflecting on the wild U.S. Olympic trials that wrapped up last week. "I feel really good about this team."

The trials produced a mixed bag of strong performances, upsets and suspenseful moments.

Tyson Gay, the defending world champion in the 100 and 200 meters, will go to the Olympics in the first event but not the second after a hamstring injury sent him tumbling to the track in 200 qualifying.

Defending Olympic champion and former Mr. Invincible in the 400 meters Jeremy Wariner lost in the final to LaShawn Merritt for the second time this year. One could look at Wariner as slipping or the U.S. just getting stronger.

Gay has said he'll be ready for the 100 and Thornton said he has no reason to doubt him. Thornton said he's checking on Gay's progress by staying in regular touch with Gay's personal coach Jon Drummond.

"I'm expecting him back when they say 'to your marks.' I have great confidence in the people around him," Thornton said.

Even with his confidence in the team from top to bottom, Thornton didn't want to predict a medal haul for a country that typically dominates the track.

"My medal count goal is that at the end of the day, when 91,000 people leave that stadium, they've heard our national anthem so many times that they're humming it on their way out the door," Thornton said.

The United States topped the track and field medal table at the 2004 Athens Olympics with a total of 25. That was the country's largest haul since taking home 30 medals from the track at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games.

SWIMMING

VENDT FILES COUNTERSUIT

Less than a week after failing to qualify for an individual event at the U.S. swimming trials, Olympian Erik Vendt filed a countersuit yesterday against a California company that claims he broke his contract by choosing to wear a rival swimsuit.

Vendt made his own breach-of-contract claims against TYR Sport in the federal lawsuit filed in California. He also sued the company for slander, alleging that comments made by its attorney, Larry Hilton, have cost the swimmer other endorsement deals.

TYR went to federal court in May with an antitrust case that claims USA Swimming has been working with Speedo to ensure all Americans wear that company's LZR Racer suit at the Beijing Olympics, even if they have deals with other companies such as TYR.