Sixers

Team USA Lost Again and Will Finish 7th Place (or Worse) at the FIBA World Cup

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Sep 12th, 2019 · 12:34 PM EDT

---

For the first time since 2002, USA basketball lost two straight games, falling today to Serbia in the FIBA World Cup.

That loss follows the quarterfinal disappointment against France, when our guys lost by ten-points to a squad that included Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, Frank Ntilikina, Nicolas Batum, and one-time Toronto Raptor Nando de Colo. Good players, for sure, but not exactly murderer’s row right there.

I see a lot of stuff out there ripping this USA squad to shreds, and I agree – they underachieved. They were disappointing. I guess the silver lining for Sixers fans is that the four Boston Celtics on the team didn’t exactly light the world on fire.

But I’d also like to defend these guys and give them credit for stepping up and actually playing this tournament. The roster shuffle was farcical at best, with top NBA talent leaving the team on what seemed like a daily basis. We didn’t send our A team or our B team to China. We sent a C team that was cobbled together at the last minute after everybody else said “thanks, but no thanks.”

For that reason, I’m not gonna shit all over this squad. They represented their country when nobody else really wanted to. They gave up the second half of their offseason, their summer, to fly to China and wear the Team USA jersey. Regardless of the finish, at least they had the presence of mind to jump in and say, “I’ll go play for the U.S.”

Myles Turner said something along those lines when he took to Twitter after today’s loss:

Our character, or are spirit we layed it all out on the line each and every game. Don’t disrespect us this coaching staff or USA Basketball as a whole but respect the world basketball is an international game these countries are talented

— Myles Turner (@Original_Turner) September 12, 2019

We’re also the ones who stepped up to the plate when others stepped down. We qualified our nation for the Olympics we got some work to do to rebuild a legacy that was left before us were on the wrong side of history indeed. But that’s gunna make the next medal that much sweeter!

— Myles Turner (@Original_Turner) September 12, 2019

I agree. These guys stepped up, and I can respect that. Turner is also correct when he talks about the international game and the amount of talent there. Think about it; the Sixers’ best two players right now are not Americans. One is from Cameroon and the other grew up in Australia. The NBA’s best player is Greek. Other countries play good basketball, too, and we should all recognize that.

Also recognize that the rest of the world is in line for monolithic ass kicking at next year’s Olympics. Team USA is gonna be putting boots to asses with such force and attitude that it’s gonna make the 1992 Olympics look like child’s play.