Team USA in the FIBA World Championships

          Team USA’s basketball “B” team has been competing in Turkey at the FIBA World Championship tournament. Although no member of Team USA’s gold medal Olympic team from 2008 is on the world championship team, it is no excuse for the way they have played through their first 5 games.

Age is Only a Number

The team may be young, led by 21 year old and reigning NBA scoring champ Kevin Durant, but that is no excuse for the immature way that this team has been playing in their group stage games.

Game after game, this team has played offensive basketball as if they were in an all-star game. They attempt to run flashy fast breaks with jaw dropping alley-oops and other unnecessary moves. It’s one thing to run the fast break, which they should definitely be doing with the likes of speedsters Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook running the point, but too many times
they have been unsuccessful in 2-on-1 and 3-on-1 fast breaks because they were trying to get the crowd on their feet as opposed to the ball in the basket.

Nothing is Given

Although America remains the powerhouse in world basketball, many other countries are quickly gaining ground. In a pre-tournament exhibition, Team USA beat Spain 86-85 after Durant blocked a Rudy Fernandez 3-pointer as time expired. 

In their 3rd game in the FIBA tourney, USA found themselves down after the 1st quarter and halftime for the first time in the tournament as they battled Brazil. By the time the final buzzer sounded, USA had squeaked out a 70-68 win.

Both Spain and Brazil have always been seen as soccer countries (Spain won the 2010 World Cup and Brazil seems to always be ranked within the top 3), but it is clear that the gap in basketball talent between the U.S. and every other country is not nearly as big as it used to be. Countries such as these are no longer scared to go up against NBA players and this U.S. teams needs to realize that in order to win the world championships and clinch a spot in the 2012 Summer Olympics. They need to cut out the overly extravagant plays and just focus on winning. Even though most of these players won’t be playing in London in 2 years, this team could still easily beat any other team in the world if they stayed focus and stopped acting like these other teams are just going to hand them the trophy.