Incidentally, France Knocked the USA outta FIBA's World Cup
Here's the deal:
Team USA woulda been prohibitive favorites to waltz into another FIBA World Cup championship if its big guns felt like playing in it.
But damn, FIBA all but chased those dudes away by moving its showcase event from 2018 to 2019, a mere 10 months before the Olympic tournament tips off. When are the big dogs supposed to re-charge?
The Americans' 89-79 loss to France shouldn't really be a shock. To a lesser extent, neither should Argentina's elimination of Serbia, 97-87, the team that was supposed to be the USA's biggest threat in this event.
Discounting basketball's super-elite level -- populated by the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Curry, James Harden, and Joel Embiid -- many of the major national programs have caught up.
In this quarterfinal, France was led by a pair of NBA vets:
- Utah Jazz C Rudy Gobert ... 21 points; 16 boards, and
- Orlando Magic G Evan Fournier ... 22 points; 4 assists.
Jazz G Donovan Mitchell kept the USA in it, but in the end, dude needed more help than he got:
If the USA was gonna get bounced from an international showcase, though, this is the one.
FIBA has visions of hyping itself into the next FIFA. It's definitely mirrored the soccer body's arrogance, but it doesn't have the juice yet to back that 'tude up.
There's no way FIBA's World Cup is gonna upstage the Olympics as a priority like FIFA has, so anything they do to make player preparations and club team considerations for the Games more challenging is only gonna diminish their stature as an internatinoal priority.
Thus, so what if this is where the USA's snapped ...
- Its 58-game international winning streak, as well as
- Its 6 straight international gold medals.
No one in the States is gonna mourn this knockout. For most, it's barely registered on the attention meter.
However, it oughta help the always-intense Gregg Popovich & Co recruit a killer Olympic squad.