Tag: USA men’s basketball

Ranking the Top 10 big men for Team USA if Joel Embiid declines invitation to Paris Olympics in 2024

Anthony Davis is the top option but there are some interesting sleepers, too.

After shockingly failing to medal during the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Team USA has lots of questions to answer before the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

One of the reasons why Team USA struggled to even earn a bronze medal was due to a lack of size in the frontcourt. They struggled on the defensive end of the floor and had a massive deficiency when it came to rebounding the ball.

This is a team that will need legitimate big men in order to compete with tough international talent in the post such as Serbia’s Nikola Jokic as well as France’s Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama.

Team USA head coach Steve Kerr was asked about what changes may come before the Olympics and he mentioned that the team needed to have very specific intentions when it came to the types of big men they would target for the roster (via The Athletic):

“I think it’s a worthwhile point of discussion, but the discussion has to go to, ‘OK, then who is that?” […] “You can’t just say, we’re going to have size for size’s sake. You have to have players who are going to help you win, and you have to determine who those guys are. It’s not just the size, it’s the way the game is played. […] But I don’t think it’s as simple as saying it’s just size. I think you have to examine who you’re talking about if you go down that path.”

Of course, the first name that comes to mind is Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid. He could join the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon, who helped lead Team USA to win a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta after he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

The six-time All-Star is an international free agent who is eligible to play for Team Cameroon (after they clinched a spot to compete in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament) as well as Team France and Team USA.

Team USA managing director Grant Hill said Embiid “knows our desire” to have him on the team. According to Brian Windhorst, however, it’s too early to assume that the league’s reigning MVP will decide to actually suit up for the Americans at the 2024 Olympics in Paris (via ESPN):

“Team USA has done some recruiting of Joel Embiid, who holds both United States and French citizenship, but the Philadelphia 76ers star has thus far been noncommittal.”

So if Team USA is not able to successfully recruit Embiid, here are the other top options that they could consider:

Austin Reaves did the three to the head celebration for Carmelo Anthony, who saluted back on Twitter

Austin Reaves and Carmelo Anthony were teammates on the Lakers.

During the 2023 FIBA World Cup semifinal match between Team USA and Germany, Austin Reaves had a perfect celebration after a 3-pointer.

After connecting on a shot from beyond the arc, Reaves hit the “three to the head” celebration popularized by Carmelo Anthony. The two players were teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers when Reaves was a rookie in 2021-22.

Anthony, who was captain of Team USA during the FIBA World Cup in 2006, was at the game in Manila. He was attending the tournament in the Philippines as FIBA’s World Cup Global Ambassador. Other ambassadors include Pau Gasol (Spain) and Luis Scola (Argentina).

Right after the 3-pointer connected, the three-time Olympic gold medalist was shown on the TV broadcast.

Anthony clearly saw the tribute from Reaves and he saluted back with a post on Twitter.

This was an awesome moment for Reaves, who has played well for Team USA during the tournament.

Reaves finished with 21 points but Team USA ultimately was upset by Germany, 113-111, and will not advance to the World Cup championship game.

Instead, Team USA will face Canada for a chance to win the bronze.

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Here are the 8 teams that qualified for the 2024 Olympics in Paris at the 2023 FIBA World Cup

USA and Canada men’s basketball have both qualified for the Olympics.

Although each national team wants to win the tournament, the FIBA World Cup also helps determine what nations will qualify for the Olympics.

Only a dozen teams will compete in Paris and we already know six of those nations, which we will review below. The placements thus far are based on universality, to ensure each continent is represented, and performance at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

The host nation (France) automatically earns a bid to play in the tournament. Two teams from the Americas, two teams from Europe, one team from Asia, one team from Africa and one team from Oceania will also get placement as well.

If a team is listed in bold, that means they have officially punched their ticket and will compete in the 2024 Olympics.

Three asterisks next to the nation indicate that the team made it to the final phase of the tournament before elimination but still qualified for a wildcard spot via the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July 2024.

Similarly, two asterisks next to the nation indicate that the team made it to the second round of the tournament before elimination but qualified for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament as well.

One asterisk next to the nation indicates that the team did not make it to the second round of the tournament but also managed to qualify for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in the class of 17 – 32.

Meanwhile, a strikethrough on the team name suggests that based on their performance during the FIBA World Cup, the team did not qualify for any of the four Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

The four winners of the four Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, meanwhile, will join the followng eight teams in Paris at the 2024 Olympics.

Paolo Banchero was booed by Italian fans after spurning them for Team USA at the FIBA World Cup

Italy wasn’t happy with the Paolo Banchero for choosing Team USA.

Out of all the teams that Team USA could have faced in the quarterfinals of the 2023 FIBA World Cup, it was the Italian national team.

Team USA has a key player, Paolo Banchero, with a strong connection to Italy. Banchero, who was the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, is from Washington but was eligible to play for the Italian national team as a duel citizen.

When he was just 17 years old, he was selected to the 24-man squad before the Eurobasket qualification games in November 2020. He did not play. As recently as last year, however, Banchero said he was “planning to play” for the Italian national team.

But when he received an invitation to play for Team USA at the 2023 FIBA FIBA World Cup, despite the longstanding interest from Italy, he accepted and said that he drew inspiration from his mother (via The Athletic):

“To represent your country is bigger than yourself. … It was a drawn-out process, choosing between (USA and Italy). I decided this is where I wanted to be. My mother played for Team USA, so it was always a dream of mine.”

Banchero, who was the 2023 NBA Rookie of the Year, would have had a massive offensive load for the Italian national team. Instead, he is more of a role player for Team USA.

Gianni Petrucci, the president of the Italian Basketball Federation, was predictably unhappy (via La Gazzetta dello Sport)

“Betrayal, especially in basketball, is a strong word. Situations like this happen, and personally, I’m used to it. But he fooled us, we were planning a great commercial strategy for him.”

Before the game against Italy, Banchero was asked if he had a message for the Italian fans. Banchero said that he did not have anything to say to them.

So before tipoff on Tuesday evening in the Philippines, it wasn’t exactly much of a surprise when Banchero was showered with boos from the Italian fans that traveled to the game.

According to reporter Nicole Ganglani, the forward was “greeted with boos” by the crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena. But the jeers were from just a “small contingent” of fans, per reporter Joe Viray.

It wasn’t a warm welcome for Banchero in front of these Italian fans.

Some even held signs potentially equating Banchero to Pinocchio, likely suggesting that the Orlando forward is a liar.

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The U.S. men’s hoops team is proving any talk about chemistry is totally silly

Talent > chemistry.

This is the Morning Win. For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be writing each weekday morning about the Tokyo Olympics. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.

The U.S. men’s basketball team struggled in some exhibition games before heading to Tokyo and then lost its first game in the Olympics and a lot of people started bringing up the “chemistry” narrative.

You know the one I’m talking about – when people go on about how the players really need to figure out their roles on the team and come together as one and develop some really good chemistry so it can go on and win games and hopefully take home the gold.

Yeah, that is all fine and good but it’s also really silly. Because do you know what trumps chemistry, especially in a quick tournament like this one? HAVING THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE WORLD.

Chemistry, schmeistry, as the saying goes.

Is chemistry important over a long season? Of course. Is it important over a two-week tournament? No, not when you have the roster Team USA has. Chemistry becomes irrelevant.

The men’s team is heading back to the gold medal game after beating Australia in a semifinal game on Thursday, a game in which the U.S. trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half before storming back to win going away, 97-78.

Three of the top four scorers for Team USA were guys who played in the NBA Finals just a few weeks ago (Devin Booker 20 points, Jrue Holiday 11 points, and Khris Middleton 11 points) and basically joined the team on the fly in Japan.

The leading scorer was a guy named Kevin Durant (23 points), who is the best player in the world right now.

So yeah, all those chemistry concerns were pretty pointless.

The U.S. now faces France, the team that beat them in the opener, in the gold medal game and should Team USA take home the gold it will have very little do with chemistry and very much to do with the ridiculous amount of talent it possesses.

And that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has ever watched basketball.

Quick hits: Wild artistic swimming photos… Hilarious diving photos… Carl Lewis crushes men’s 4×100 relay team… And more. 

(AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

– You need to see these incredible photos from the artistic swimming event to see just how tough that sport is.

– Also, you need to see these photos of the faces divers make while competing in Tokyo.

– Carl Lewis was embarrassed by the U.S. men’s 4×100 relay team’s struggles on Thursday and the Olympic great didn’t hold back at all.

– LeBron James deleted a fiery tweet aimed at everyone bashing the Lakers for being old.

– ‘Jeopardy!’ fans are not happy about who might be the next permanent host.

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