More countries are starting to put together powerful basketball teams to stand against the blowout medal run the United States has with 19 total. This year the USA couldn't pull it together and ended up with 4th place in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Are teams from other companies starting to dominate the NBA & the World Cup Tournament? Are the days of the USA Dream Teams over?
Players like Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic (Former NBA Champion), & more amazing talents were on the opposing team of USA in this years FIBA World Cup. USA has always been a powerhouse in basketball we all know that but as of the last few tournaments they've had some issues finishing the job. This year they had some stand out moments that had fans believing when in the beginning it didn't seem like anybody had much faith in this team winning a medal let alone a gold. Anthony Edwards showed signs of being one of the top players in the world as it seemed at times like he was just doing anything he wanted out there. Early on in the tournament it seemed like USA had a chance to shock the non believers and make a push, but that's for people who didn't actually watch the games.
Through the entire tournament players like Gilgeous-Alexander & Dennis Schroder dominated competition where Schroder averaged 20.7 mpg in the qualifiers and 19.1 mpg in the tournament, and Gilgeous-Alexander averaging 26.3 ppg in the qualifiers & 24.5 ppg in the tournament! While doing numbers like that the bigger media outlets mainly shined light on a more struggling Team USA who would go into the tournament to get beat by Germany & Canada in the Semi Finals and 3rd place matches. All this while coming off the comments of American track star Noah Lyles stating he doesn't know why NBA players wear "world champion" tags on there jerseys in the NBA, claiming they don't win any world championships.
Lyles, who was coming off winning 3 World Championship Gold Medals, made the comments on a live interview where all of the world heard it. This was before the Mens FIBA Basketball tournament which sparked emotions and comments from current NBA players who weren't in the current tournament. Although the athlete's bonded together to try to get Team USA the motivation to finish with a medal it came to no avail, proving Noah Lyles current comments to be true in terms of this years USA team. Despite losing, big names like LeBron James, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, & even Stephen Curry have shown interest in suiting up for Team USA in 2024 to avenge the Dream Team status set by the USA teams in 1992 & 1996. If they could bring in Greg Popovich I would be curious to see what type of tournament they'd have if everybody stayed healthy. But for now that's only a thought and we as Americans have to sit in this medal-less loss that we've seemed to come to accustomed to for mens FIBA Tournament Basketball. I hate to say it but I think USA is going to have some trouble for the next few tournaments with the amount of talent coming from overseas. But hopefully I'm wrong and our new talent can come around and we regain the status of "The Dream Team" again.
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