Did USA Basketball get Embarrassed?
The 2023 FIBA World Cup has now ended with Germany defeating Serbia in the title game. Congratulations to Germany on a well-played tournament, going a perfect 8-0 en route to the title. Now, onto possibly the biggest revelation of the World Cup: Did USA Basketball get Embarrassed?
Simply speaking, what happened to America in the World Cup was not remotely embarrassing. Yes, they were the favorites and ended up not medaling. Did they underperform? Absolutely. Were they a disappointment? Sure. Does it rise to the threshold of being embarrassing? Absolutely not. For starters, finishing fourth in an international tournament is nothing to be embarrassed about. Many other countries would love to be in that position. There have been 63 teams to make the FIBA World Cup, and in total there have only been 23 countries to finish fourth or better. And only 17 countries have ever finished better than where the US finished this year. To call it embarrassing is an insult to every country who’s fought to be there.
Further, the US does not historically do as well at the FIBA WC as one might think. In the 2019 World Cup, the US finished 7th. In the eight competitions that have taken place since 1994 – when NBA players were allowed to compete – USA has only returned home with the gold three times: 1994, 2010, and 2014. In the rest of those tournaments, America hasn’t finished better than third.
In the entire history of the World Cup, Team USA have won gold only five times out of 19 tournaments, versus the seven times they’ve finished fourth or worse. So how could this year’s finish be considered embarrassing, when it's commonplace?
Finally, there is the question of the talent sent by the US. An argument could be made that not a single player on this iteration of Team USA would’ve been selected if every American player was available and willing to partake in the competition. Yes, the American squad likely still had the most talented roster of the field, and undoubtedly should have placed better than fourth, but it's still far from an embarrassment when considering it was far from USA’s A-team. In any other sport – say, soccer – while it would be disappointing for Argentina’s national team to finish fourth in a secondary tournament, it would not be considered embarrassing. While USA Basketball did disappoint in the FIBA World Cup, it was in no way embarrassing.
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