After the United States finished 7th in the Basketball World Cup, notable sports figures have expressed their concerns. Director Jerry Colangelo has outlined the current problems and propose solutions.
US Basketball Primacy Long Gone
Following a disappointing showing in the Basketball World Cup, USA basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo spoke to media on Thursday, addressing concerns that the country may have lost dominance in one of the key sports that it has helped develop.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Colangelo expressed his firm belief that the team had played to the best of its ability. Yet, he also mentioned that nobody had expected the pull-outs the team had to deal with. As a result, the USA finished seventh in the world cup – crumbling one position after its previous worst showing in 2002 when the country finished sixth.
There had been many objective reasons that had stopped the United States from showing in full strength, with players citing injuries, personal engagements and training schedules, making them unavailable in the end.
With so many players dropping out or being cut, the United States was left with a rather smaller-than-expected pool of players to draw from. Yet, Mr. Colangelo never mentioned a single player’s name as the reason why the team had lost to enter the finals.
US World Cup Team Isn’t Loaded with Superstars
The truth is that the United States doesn’t put as much emphasis on the World Cup when it comes to basketball. In fact, only two of the 12 participating U.S. players in the World Cup had an All-Stars status in the NBA, indicative of the country’s rather more modest ambitions in the event.
Nevertheless, for the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics, chances are that the United States will seek a far better showing, having won three consecutive gold medals already.
One of the reasons that Mr. Colangelo cited for the loss was that the U.S. Team had overplayed its hand:w
The players did everything they can do. They are a good group of guys. But we went in with higher expectations in terms of roster and it didn’t kind of happen the way we were hopeful and anticipating and expecting. That, to me, was a big disappointment.
Mr. Colangelo also explained that going forward, a lot more efforts will need to be put to have ready teams that can compete internationally and help the country stand tall in one of the games that it has exported to the rest of the world.
To achieve this, Mr. Colangelo believes that there will need to be better cooperation between teams, agents, and individual players.
Responding to the latest developments, Kobe Bryant, the legendary player himself chimed in to remind the United States that the country was no longer at the top of the game’s food chain. ‘It’s not going to be a catwalk,’ Mr Bryant had to say describing the current situation in the national team.
‘We’re going to have our challenges for the next team, whether it’s Redeem 2 or whatever you want to call it. No matter what team it is, it’s not going to be easy,’ he concluded
