Why the United States’ Lack of Passion and Understanding of Global Basketball Cost Them a Medal in the FIBA World Cup

The United States lost to Canada and was left without a medal in the FIBA ​​World Cup. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Not even a day had passed after the World Cup debacle when one of the two most influential journalists in the United States came out with the news that LeBron was recruiting superstars to form a new super team and thus avenge the new failure, this time in Asia. . Another Redeem Team. Another Redemption Team. With Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard, among others. Like the one in 2008, when he returned to win Olympic gold after several countries, mainly our Argentine team, brought him to his knees (twice: 2002 and 2004) before the eyes of the world. Nothing is a casuality. They want to cover this blow with news. With talent. With more talent. Without understanding where the lack really happens. News that is part of the problem. A problem that only some want to see in the USA.

“I don’t see it as a defeat, I see it as a message. Not only for Team USA, but also for the NBA.”

It was not said from the outside. It was said from within. And it was none other than Erik Spoelstra, one of the best coaches in the NBA and assistant to Steve Kerr in this World Cup.

Spo is part of the new failure of American basketball. Although some find it difficult to accept it. Even if they make the excuse of “we don’t send the best.” And others say, from the outside, that “the World Cups don’t interest them.”

It all starts from a biased view. Because really, if they didn’t care about these tournaments, Kerr wouldn’t have gone as head coach and Spoelstra as assistant. Neither did Gregg Popovich in the 2019 World Cup in which they finished seventh! And even less to stars of NBA teams, like Jalen Brunson now, or Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum four years ago. We are talking about figures who prefer to rest and if they go it is to win, not to walk.

In reality, the problem starts from there, from the lack of passion to play for his country. The other figures, who decide to go, resign things because they have a commitment and identification that few show in the United States. And, especially, because they care little about what happens outside their borders.

When they win their leagues, like the NBA, they are world champions. Without even realizing that the N stands for National and that the tournament is played with teams from the USA and Canada. A sentence that was recently harshly criticized by Noah Lyles, the four-time world champion American sprinter who said that it bothered him a lot to see the NBA champion calling himself a world champion… “I love the United States, but it’s not the world,” he explained. Several fell to him, especially from the NBA, from Durant to Lillard, including Booker and Draymond Green. Everyone hurt in his ego, unable to see reality…

The point is that they believe they are the best, sometimes even without proving it. We all know that the NBA is the best league in the world and that the No. 1 power in the world, in basketball, is the USA, but you have to go and win, prove it.

And, to do that, they must understand how to win at a global level, at least in basketball, a sport in which the game changes when you leave the border of the United States. There it is a more individual game, 1 vs 1, where athletic ability, speed, power, offensive resources prevail… Outside it is something else, as Spoelstra says. It is played more as a team, with more passes, with more game systems, with more tactics and strategy, with less spaces and even with other rules, different in FIBA ​​than in the NBA.

Basically it requires adapting to that game. A problem that Americans have had since the NBA began playing in 1992. At times they have not had major problems, especially between 1992 and 2002, when Argentina went undefeated in 58 games. Since that defeat in Indianapolis, the paradigm of world basketball changed.

Today, after more than 20 years, with a totally globalized world where everyone has the latest technological tools, with many countries – with more or less tradition – that have opted for youth development, that have strengthened their internal skills and that have exported their talent. to the best tournaments in the world, including the NBA, the context was radically modified. Basketball is another.

Today perhaps there is no sport in the world so even, where there are practically about 15/20 countries with medal dreams. We saw it in this World Cup. And for this several factors have collaborated. Like, for example, the split of the USSR and Yugoslavia, the 2nd and 3rd powers in the world until 2002. Before they were two powers, now there are 10 that are a latent danger: Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia, Russia, Lithuania, Georgia, Latvia and Ukraine, six of which have participated in this world cup. Everything changed and the only country that doesn’t see it – or doesn’t want to see it – is the USA.

They continue to believe – and this is what they debate today – that they have to send the best of the best. Yes, it is partly like that, but the tree covers the forest for them. Or pride covers their basketball. The problem, in essence, is another. With the team they took to Asia they could have won this World Cup, although many believe that it is a D team. The problems remain the same as always. They played the important games poorly because they do not understand how they are played, they prepare the matches poorly, they disregard strategy and tactics, they do not defend as they should – they received 113 points in a semi-final – and they believe that playing one against one no one will be able to beat them. The result? They didn’t even win bronze. A real piece of paper. On our knees, again, although some try to minimize it. One more stain on the star-spangled flag…

Canada took bronze in the world championships. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

The United States has to return to respecting the game and its essence. “We must reintroduce the game that characterizes us, we must return to defense. We are very deteriorated in that sense,” said Spo in the continuity of his self-criticism. “We must understand that the FIBA ​​game system is that of Europe. Play differently, more as a team, with more ball distribution,” he concluded.

The Miami Heat coach hit the key. And he wasn’t the only one.

Rudy Gay, champion in 2010 and 2014, also took another shot. “Let’s go back to the tryouts, enough of the player choices,” he asked. He is right, sometimes leadership management is about adding talents, no matter the position, the characteristics and whether their resources are adaptable to the FIBA ​​game.

And be careful, not only that. There are also personalities that are needed. LeBron can be one, although he is 38 years old and his style does not fit so well with the FIBA ​​style. But he may be the leader the new USA needs. As was Kobe, the only one who is undefeated since he agreed to be part of the resurrection process (36-0 in 4 years), when Jerry Colangelo – the president of USA Basketball – and Mike Krzyzewski, the legendary coach from the environment called him university student who really understood where the problem was. When Bryant said yes, the first thing he asked was to defend the best opposing player on each team. He wasn’t interested in the shots or the points he could make. He knew how to convey a message, a way of being and acting, which is what the last American teams lacked, precisely since Kobe left. And his mentality…

He wasn’t the only one. Coach K was the other one who understood what he was like. And where he was from. The veteran coach who took over in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup and there, in Japan, he saw first-hand what basketball was like. He ate the first post, that tough defeat against Greece in the semifinals, but he realized where he had to go. A broad, long-term program, understanding that in the world, be it the Olympic and World Games, something else was at stake, and it was the United States that had to change. Or, at least, adapt. He also, of course, did the work off the field, managing, convincing the best, making them have the humility of the greats, letting them down and leading by example.

This is how they won the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, as well as the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. They were ten years in which the United States returned to the sources. And to reign. They had a record of 88-1, only losing that game against Greece in 2006. But they had a guy who dedicated himself to understanding the context, not just navel-gazing. Argentina was his inspiration. Coach K admitted that he drew on the Argentine spirit for the formation of the program, seeking to develop a feeling that marks who you are playing for, not just putting on a jersey.

“I remember that in Beijing we had to face Argentina in the semifinal. We were about to enter the field, in the tunnel, where the public doesn’t see you, and a few meters behind were the Argentinians, dancing with their arms around each other, jumping, shouting, encouraging each other. I was with Mike D’Antoni, one of my assistants, and when I saw that I told him ‘Mike, forget about the scouting we did, this is what we have to beat. The commitment that those boys had towards their country and towards their partner, their brotherhood, is what happens when you have continuity, commitment and talent.’ And that is what I sought to replicate with our team,” he acknowledged.

Germany eliminated the United States in the FIBA ​​World Cup semifinals. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

And he did it, for a decade. But Coach K, now retired, left and no one has been able to fill his shoes. Not even Pop, another maestro, who achieved what he could (in figures) for the previous World Cup and the United States was seventh. A true disgrace for the number 1 power in world basketball. Kerr didn’t get it now either. It is clear that not even basketball gurus reach the stars’ hearts.

It is difficult when the issue comes from the roots. And it is cultural. Or an ego. Just yesterday we saw, in a video, the reaction of Gilbert Arenas, a former star who laughed when he was told that LeBron was returning to the national team. He laughed at the rest, as if to say, “poor things, what awaits them.” He doesn’t see her…

He doesn’t realize that the four best players from last season are foreigners: Jokic (Serbia), Antetokoumpo (Greece), Doncic (Slovenia) and Embiid (Cameroon). They continue to focus, especially the journalists, who know nothing outside the USA, on those who did not go to Asia, without even thinking that Serbia did not have several figures, especially Jokic and Micic, that Canada won the bronze for them without Jamal Murray or Andrew Wiggins, that France could have Wembanyama and Embiid – they say he prefers to represent Le Bleus -, among others. We must not forget that in Tokyo they won the Games after beating France by just five points. And with the best they had at their disposal…

Kerr already said it. “We are no longer in 1992.” Nobody wants to take photos with them anymore. Nobody is afraid of them anymore. Everyone wants to beat them, embarrass them, take away that sly smile from their face and those juicy plays they make when they win by 20. Because, in addition, in this tournament, we saw yet another proof. In the past you had to beat them by playing another game, slower, with less pace, possessions and points. Germany, in the semi, beat them in the Yankee game, blow for blow. He scored 113 points on 58% from the field.

That’s not how it goes. They lack a great deal of humility. And leaders who understand the problem. Otherwise, fate may have another blow in store for them. May I leave them on their knees again, like now. Like in 2019. Like in 2002 and 2004. It was the first 20 years ago, they should have learned by now.

2023-09-13 05:25:13
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