There are a lot of stories that have come out recently that I want to tackle, so picking a topic for today was actually kinda hard. Although, the good this is that it's given me plenty of subjects for the rest of the week (with, of course, the Week 2 football picks mixed in). So what did I decide to go with? USA Basketball's disappointing performance at the FIBA World Cup.
After numerous player withdrawals, the U.S. went to China with a roster that was decidedly lacking star-power. The biggest name on the squad was Kemba Walker, who single-handedly won an NCAA Championship 10 years ago, but hasn't exactly been a perennial All-Star as a pro. Nevertheless, they still boasted the only roster consisting entirely of NBA players and went into the World Cup as favorites, although they certainly appeared vulnerable.
None of that concern was alleviated when they got their butts kicked by Australia in one of the exhibition games. Then, in the second game of group play, they needed overtime to beat Turkey by a point...and the game only went to OT because Turkey missed a bunch of free throws at the end of regulation. Still, they were 5-0 heading into a quarterfinal matchup with France.
But in the quarters, they were badly outplayed and beaten soundly, 89-79, snapping a 13-year, 58-game winning streak in Olympic/World Cup/FIBA Americas competition. That loss meant the U.S. wouldn't medal for the first time since 2002, when they finished sixth at the World Cup in Indianapolis. Hang on, it gets better! They followed that up with a loss to Serbia in the consolation round, dropping them into the seventh-place game against Poland and guaranteeing the worst-ever finish by an American team at the World Cup.
Frankly, this result isn't all that shocking. It wasn't the best team the U.S. could've sent to the World Cup by far, and a number of nations brought their best possible team to the tournament (semifinalists Argentina, Spain and Australia are all still undefeated, while France's only loss was to Australia in group play). Then you throw in some injuries that left the Americans down to 10 for the France and Serbia games, and the two losses to highly-ranked opponents are even less of a surprise.
I'm not even sure winning the World Cup was necessarily their objective. The World Cup was linked to Olympic qualifying, with the top two teams from the Americas clinching spots in Tokyo. They took care of that by beating Brazil in the final group game, guaranteeing that the U.S. and Argentina would be the only teams from the Americas in the quarterfinals. So, mission accomplished. Otherwise, they would've had to play in an Olympic Qualifying Tournament next summer.
And we all know that the Olympics are and always have been more important to USA Basketball. That's why the team we'll see next summer will be full of names that are much more familiar to the casual basketball fan. Especially after this dumpster fire of World Cup, I'm fully expecting the 2020 Olympic team to be completely different. In fact, I'd be shocked if any of the 12 World Cup players makes the team next summer.
USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo, who'll be assembling the team for next year's Olympics, was upset about all the withdrawals and made a thinly veiled threat to those players. He said, "I will remember who did not show up for the World Cup," which I guess was his way of trying to imply that they won't be selected for the Olympic team. Which is obviously ridiculous. Because if Steph Curry and LeBron James want to represent the USA in Tokyo you're not going to let them? Please. Especially when everyone knows the Olympics are your priority.
The real reason so many players pulled out had nothing to do with a lack of commitment, either. It's because of FIBA's idiotic scheduling of the World Cup, which I think had a direct impact on the players' decisions.
Kudos to the 12 players who did suit up. Because they'll immediately be heading to training camp in preparation for an 82-game season. Then they're supposed to turn right around as soon as the season ends and put on the USA jersey again for the Olympics (which will also be held in East Asia) before doing the whole thing all over again? That's too much, and there are plenty of NBA owners/GMs/coaches who'd be plenty upset with their star players if they had tried it.
FIBA just changed the international schedule, though, so it doesn't look like they're eager to change it back anytime soon. Which means this is going to be an ongoing problem. And it's on USA Basketball to solve it. Because you're not going to have a roster with 12 All-NBA players in back-to-back years. Especially not the same 12 players.
Keep in mind, they had this exact same problem heading into the 2010 World Cup. Nobody from the 2008 Olympic team returned. The biggest difference, though, was that Kevin Durant was on that team and dominated the tournament. And who knows? Maybe that one stud player would've been the difference. And maybe this year was an anomaly with the injuries and scheduling issues and everything else that led most of those who were invited to drop out.
Perhaps USA Basketball can take this as a lesson, too. You can't just take any 12 guys and expect them to win simply because they play in the NBA and they're wearing a USA jersey. The rest of the world is simply too good.
This wouldn't be the first time that happened, either. After the embarrassing sixth place in 2002 was followed by a bronze at the Athens Olympics, they completely revamped the National Team system, hiring Mike Krzyzewski as coach and changing the selection process. And it didn't work right away. They won bronze at the 2006 World Cup (after that loss to Greece in the semis). But three Olympic golds and two World Cups followed.
Now USA Basketball is at another crossroads. As much they'd like to forget the 2019 World Cup, they can't. And they shouldn't. Because it was a valuable learning experience. Just like not qualifying for last year's FIFA World Cup was a wake-up call for USA Soccer, the performance at this year's FIBA World Cup should serve the same effect for USA Basketball. You have to change what you were doing. Otherwise, it'll happen again.
At least USA Basketball doesn't need to wait another four years. And the World Cup wasn't a total loss, either. They did achieve one of their goals and qualified for the Olympics. So, we'll only have to wait 10 months to see if there's any World Cup hangover. I doubt there will be. Because in Tokyo, USA Basketball will have an entirely different team. In more ways than one.
No comments:
Post a Comment