After a disappointing showing at the FIBA World Cup, the United States will be returning in full force to dominate basketball at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
US Keeps FIBA No. 1 Rank for Now, Olympics to Be Better
Despite a rather dispiriting showing in the 2018 FIBA World Cup, the United States are still on the top of the overall rank list, with Spain coming a close second. This comes on the trail of a defeat in the recent World Cup where the USA basketball team finished 7th and posted its lowest showing to date.
The United States has kept its No.1 ranking since 2010 when it became a world’s champion. Most recently, the country’s dominance in international basketball has declined, although the Olympics have been a source of pride for American basketball fans.
U.S. Coach Gregg Popovich argued that one of America’s favorite sports has become a victim of its own popularity.
In this day and age, basketball in other countries is not a secret. So, it’s not like there’s an epiphany or a revelation to be made. There are wonderful teams and wonderful coaches all over the world. You go compete and the best teams win.
Nevertheless, the US is serious about its Olympics prospects, which have been dimmed over protests recently. Several top NBA players have responded to the call to represent their country. Some of the aces making it on the short list include Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Damian Lillard.
Conversely, the majority of relied-upon talent have chosen not to participate in the World Cup events, citing injuries, personal engagements and other reasons for not attending, leaving Popovich with a rather more limited pool of players to pick from.
All Eyes on the Olympics
The countries to secure a leadership position include a lot of the faces we saw in the World Cup. Apart from this, countries such as Angola, Senegal, Mexico, Uruguay, China, Korea, and Croatia all hope that their Olympics teams will qualify to compete again on an international stage in 2020.
Overall, 24 teams will participate in the upcoming Olympics, creating a vast pool of competitors. France, Australia and Spain will again be some of the most serious challengers that the United States will have to face.
However, coach Popovich will have a much better field of players to work with in the first place, which will bring back the A game of the nation insofar basketball goes.
Overall, sixteen teams have already made it into the Olympics based on their showing in the World Cup. They include Serbia, Lithuania, Greece, Russia, Brazil, Italy, Puerto Rico, Turkey, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Germany, Canada, the Czech Republic, Poland, New Zealand and Tunisia.
