Old Going For Gold: USA Men's Olympic Basketball - Next Up The Main Event vs France (8/10 @ 3:30pm ET)

[In The Zone '98]

Exactly.

But to that pont though, we're gonna have to get chin-checked in the Olympics to change the process of how we do things. We don't treat the FIBA World Cup as a serious competition (which is part of the problem). Grant Hill has already made it known that players don't have to make a long-term commitment with this squad, so there's a strong likelihood that we'll roll into the next Olympics the same way we did as the last one, except this time it'll be on a hope and prayer that a conglomerate of unproven talent will be enough.

Your essays come off as desperation for USA to lose. So you can have an I told you so moment.

They won the medal 48 hours ago. Do you have to go so hard so soon?

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Your essays come off as desperation for USA to lose. So you can have an I told you so moment.

They won the medal 48 hours ago. Do you have to go so hard so soon?

Who's to know this board will still be around in four years? We just talking hoops, nxgga.



You can go back to jokes and memes whenever you want.

 

[In The Zone '98]

Who's to know this board will still be around in four years? We just talking hoops, nxgga.



You can go back to jokes and memes whenever you want.

USA just won its 5 straight gold medal in hoops

Put some respect on it and stop praying for nikkas to lose

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

USA just won its 5 straight gold medal in hoops

Put some respect on it and stop praying for nikkas to lose

Ain't nobody praying for shyt, lil nxgga.

Last two days I've been reminded more and more why I stopped posting on this board cause of cats like you who've got nothing of worth to add to the conversation. You just hop in when other folks is talking with your sassy ass self, with the same ole tired expressions of why you hating?.

Watching Bron, KD and Steph in their gray ages, proving to the world one last time they're some of the best to ever do it, bringing home the Gold, was one of the best viewing experiences as a hoops fan. I'll cherish that shyt for as long as I live. We'll likely never see something like that again.

Now that we've got that bullshyt out the way.

Team USA won five-straight off the backs of superstar talent, which they dwarfed their competition with. The likelihood they'll have that margin of talent on the competition in 2028, well, they just simply won't. I am just purely acknowledging that. That ain't no hating. That's just how it is. That clear enough for ya?

 

[In The Zone '98]

Ain't nobody praying for shyt, lil nxgga.

Last two days I've been reminded more and more why I stopped posting on this board cause of cats like you who've got nothing of worth to add to the conversation. You just hop in when other folks is talking with your sassy ass self, with the same ole tired expressions of why you hating?.

Watching Bron, KD and Steph in their gray ages, proving to the world one last time they're some of the best to ever do it, bringing home the Gold, was one of the best viewing experiences as a hoops fan. I'll cherish that shyt for as long as I live. We'll likely never see something like that again.

Now that we've got that bullshyt out the way.

Team USA won five-straight off the backs of superstar talent, which they dwarfed their competition with. The likelihood they'll have that margin of talent on the competition in 2028, well, they just simply won't. I am just purely acknowledging that. That ain't no hating. That's just how it is. That clear enough for ya?

Oh, man. I really wonder if the NBA will have great players in four years to send to the Olympics

Is not debating in good faith.

I'm not even mad at you. Have at it.

 

[Bigwhite2498]

Ain't nobody praying for shyt, lil nxgga.

Last two days I've been reminded more and more why I stopped posting on this board cause of cats like you who've got nothing of worth to add to the conversation. You just hop in when other folks is talking with your sassy ass self, with the same ole tired expressions of why you hating?.

Watching Bron, KD and Steph in their gray ages, proving to the world one last time they're some of the best to ever do it, bringing home the Gold, was one of the best viewing experiences as a hoops fan. I'll cherish that shyt for as long as I live. We'll likely never see something like that again.

Now that we've got that bullshyt out the way.

Team USA won five-straight off the backs of superstar talent, which they dwarfed their competition with. The likelihood they'll have that margin of talent on the competition in 2028, well, they just simply won't. I am just purely acknowledging that. That ain't no hating. That's just how it is. That clear enough for ya?

What exactly makes you think we wouldn’t have the margin of talent in 2028?

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Oh, man. I really wonder if the NBA will have great players in four years to send to the Olympics

Is not debating in good faith.

I'm not even mad at you. Have at it.

Except every Olympics we've had some overlap of superstar talent to usher in the new era.

We went into this Olympics relying on three players in their mid-to-late 30s to carry the squad. That hasn't been the case during the modern era. The last pass of the batton was when Kobe was 33 to KD in 2012 (alongside Bron), and KD anchored the team every single step of the way (even scoring 30 points in the gold medal game). To which he's led the team ever since then.

We're now at a place where KD is nearly 36, Steph is 36 and Bron 39, and they didn't pass the batton to anyone this time out. It would've been a whole different thang if they were the ones who remained in the background, whilst others stepped up, but nobody did during the last two games. Bron and KD had to be the main characters (along with Steph) again.

It should've been Ant or Tatum, but they simply weren't cut out for it, and it remains to be seen if they will be in 2028.

You're lying to yourself if you don't think that's a potential issue in the next Olympics. Especially when we know other nations will have a superstar to anchor theirs.

 

[thatrapsfan]

Except every Olympics we've had some overlap of superstar talent to usher in the new era.

We went into this Olympics relying on three players in their mid-to-late 30s to carry the squad. That hasn't been the case during the modern era. The last pass of the batton was when Kobe was 33 to KD in 2012 (alongside Bron), and KD anchored the team every single step of the way (even scoring 30 points in the gold medal game). To which he's led the team ever since then.

We're now at a place where KD is nearly 36, Steph is 36 and Bron 39, and they didn't pass the batton to anyone this time out. It would've been a whole different thang if they were the ones who remained in the background, whilst others stepped up, but nobody did during the last two games. Bron and KD had to be the main characters (along with Steph) again.

It should've been Ant or Tatum, but they simply weren't cut out for it, and it remains to be seen if they will be in 2028.

You're lying to yourself if you don't think that's a potential issue in the next Olympics. Especially when we know other nations will have a superstar to anchor theirs.

Anybody who watched the last World Cup will agree your concerns are sound. Yall will still have the best talent altogether, but will the gap be enough to make up for the lack of continuity? I (and the rest of the world) hope not

 

[SchoolboyC]

A greater foundational base for starters, one that is more similar to growing up in this country. With the globalization of the sport, more and more resources are getting pushed into developing these players from a younger age all over the world. It's been typical of international players to play more of a niche role (one that is accustomed to the country's leagues they grew up in), which ran parallel to them being drafted one year and then not playing in the NBA until a couple years later. At that point, a certain amount of that development was already set in stone when they came into the league.

Now, franchises are actively looking to make those players the centerpiece of their teams, and they're doing it ASAP.

The logic of that doesn't really hold up when we've seen Luka, Giannis, Jokic (and to a lesser degree SGA) etc come into the league and buck the trend of what we've come to know about foreign talent. That if they're given the same platform to develop into superstars, they can develop into them. The likes of Diaw came into the league recognized as a role player and he stayed that way. Franchises have seen how great international players can be, and they're looking for the next superstar. It's no coincidence that nearly half of this year's lottery picks are international players.

Besides, if Coulibaly, Sarr, Dieng etc can develop into what Batum and Diaw ended up being, then France is going to be a monster.

But are Miller, GG or Chet going to move the needle?

Remove Bron, Steph and KD from this year's Olympics squad, and Team USA still have players that are far better, in isolation, than the rest of the other nations. But that doesn't mean much if those players are greater, individually, but not transcendent enough, to where it would be enough to counter teams who have more chemistry as a unit, and who have higher commmitt to their nation's team

I mean, we literally needed all of Bron, Steph and KD to win. They were at the center of every run we had against Serbia and France. Would Tatum, Booker, Jrue etc have stepped up into those types of roles and carried us to gold, even despite being better players than what France and Serbia had? I have my doubts.

Say the next Olympics rolls around, and France have gone through a 1-2 year cycle with the same rotation in preperation for it, and yet Team USA have just brought a team together for the first time for the exhibitions, and they have a whole host of players who're individually better than the players on France, but they're just you're standard type of star, they're not your KD-level of star, do you think that's simply going to be enough?

Ant's better than 99.999999% of the rest of the players at the Olympics, but when it was time to get down to business in the knockout stages, he shyt the bed. Largely because he isn't ready for that role, and because he hasn't had any international exposure. That's what we're going to need to count on in time for the next Olympics, that despite having more talent than every other nation, are they going to be good enough to step up when needed?

You wouldn't have said that four years ago, would you?



Which is my point.

Four years from now, that trend is going to continue, if not in that direct respect with more superstars, but a trend where there'll be more international players on the level of Chet, GG, Miller etc. There doesn't really need to be a whole host of countries with the same level of depth as us, there just needs to be one.

Are we going to have a Bron or KD level player to carry us next time, when other countries have a Luka, or Jokic or Wemby? When was the last time in the Olympics where we didn't have a generational superstar anchoring the team?

I guess it's one and the same, at least to me.

This squad was brought to together last minute, with minimal player commitment from last year's FIBA World Cup, yet they still had enough of a talent advantage to where it didn't matter. That's why I keep emphasizing it's going to be different next time, because they won't be able to roll into the next Olympics thinking a talent advantage will be enough, because that margin will be about as small as it's been in the last 20+ years.

I’m not pushing back that the gap between the USA and the world is smaller than it’s ever been. But again, as long as the foreign talent is spread out it doesn’t hit the same. You’re right that all it takes is one country to start consolidating talent but right now there really isn’t. Canada may be the closest but they’ve got a long way to go over the next 4 years.

I think it’s clear that in 2024 we needed LeBron/KD/Steph to still play at a high level to complete the journey of gold. We faced significant adversity and leaned on our OGs to right the ship. But not being able to lean on Ant at 23 in that situation doesn’t mean we won’t be able to rely on 27 year old Ant.

Probably the closest example of not having a generational superstar is 2000 when 23 year old Vince Carter & 24 year old KG were our best players during the run.

I get people being worried because right now we don’t really have someone that’s stood out and cemented themselves as “the guy”, and it’s very realistic we could be in situations where we don’t have the best player on the court.

I suppose my overall issue is that I feel other countries also have question marks for 2028, but it feels like people are projecting the worst for USA, while projecting the best for other countries and I don’t really look at it like that

Like take Serbia for example since we’ve already spoken on France. They came closer to beating the USA in the knockout rounds than probably any team has since 2004 Argentina. But if you look to 2028, the core that they leaned on now will all be 33-36. Unless we’re banking on Nikola Jovic to take a huge jump as a player over the next 4, who’s to say this wasn’t their best shot to win gold and they blew it?

As great as Giannis & Luka are, Greece & Slovenia are very devoid of talent outside of them. They basically have to carry the entire load that Bron/KD/Steph had to combine for by themselves and it still isn’t enough for their countries to be legit threats. Who do they have in the pipeline now to make us think this will be any different in 2028?

As far as the commitment stuff, I 100% agree it needs to change but as Team USA has shown in the past, it won’t unless they start taking consecutive L’s. I know it would never happen but I would tell them if you want to be eligible for 2028 Olympics, then you need to suit up for either 2026 AmeriCup or 2027 World Cup That’s better than nothing

 

[Mister Terrific]

Luka
Jokic
Giannis
Wemby
SGA.

So basically Jokic who is going to be 33 in the next Olympics. His #2 is Bogdanovic who is going to be 35.

Giannis plays for team that might not even be top 10 in the world and doesn’t fit his play style because they are horrible at shooting

Luka plays with Cab drivers

Wemby plays with a potentially great front court if Frances NBA draft picks hit but zero guard play and one of the worst shooting teams at the Olympics.

SGA is no different than Edwards.


That’s the best you got?

The fact that you included a 20 year old snd SGA shows how much you struggled to defend your point Wemby having to be the focal point of his team and Chet not even getting a look shows the ridiculous depth the U.S. has compared to France.

You wanna list the superstars born in this country that'll dominate on that level going into 2028?

Doesn’t matter. We are talking winning the Olympics and not individual accolades. The U.S. will have a prime Ja, Zion, Maxey, Edwards, Bam, Chet, Tatum, Brown, Brooks etc. no team in the world is matching that.


Now list your starting five for France, Serbia, Slovenia and Greece.

Players like Micic and Bogdanovic are easily replaceable.

The majority of developed nations have those kind of players coming through all the time to play those sorts of roles.

Name them. Name 2 players as good as Bogdanovic and Micic coming through Serbia’s youth team.

The sport is growing globally, so it's not like there's suddenly going to be a dearth of complimentary talent for those countries, especially for the Baltic states and France.

France was having Wemby initiating their offense because their guards were atrocious all tournament. You really have no idea what you are talking about

Tell me who is going to match up with Edwards, Zion, Ja, Book and Maxey in 2028 from France? We got Chet and Bam for Wemby. What you got?

The only thing that is of actual relevance here is, who do we have that'll become the next KD? Or the next Bron? To help counter other nations that have a generational player anchoring their squad.

Doesn’t matter. We aren’t playing the world team we are playing individual nations. Luke couldn’t drag his generational CPAs to even qualify. Greece can’t shoot which neutralizes Giannis completely. Jokic will be 33. Wemby will be playing with a bunch of EuroLeague guards.


Again did you even watch the other Olympic Games?

you have Canada who can pretty much run it back with the same squad whilst also adding someone like Edey, much-needed size that they missed during this tournament. They'll have a superstar piece,

Why are you putting SGA over Ant, Book, Ja, Zion and Brown

In fact, everyone should get off their jokes now about Canada, because if they're heathly and Edey develops into a legitimate big, it's gonna get spooky in 2028.

Chet is a better prospect than Edey. Bam will be a 25-11 player by then as well.

Please enlighten me on how "insanely talented" they'll be for 2028. What did all that insane talent do in this year's Olympics?

Won 5th gold medal, 8 of 9 with an average margin of victory of 19 points including 2 blow out wins over Serbia, blow out win over Canada and led France by double digits for most of the game in France with the Refs giving them untold home cooking.

Sounds good to me.

France and Serbia, respectively, would have replaced both those players by 2028.

Name them.

 

[Bigwhite2498]

So basically Jokic who is going to be 33 in the next Olympics. His #2 is Bogdanovic who is going to be 35.

Giannis plays for team that might not even be top 10 in the world and doesn’t fit his play style because they are horrible at shooting

Luka plays with Cab drivers

Wemby plays with a potentially great front court if Frances NBA draft picks hit but zero guard play and one of the worst shooting teams at the Olympics.

SGA is no different than Edwards.


That’s the best you got?

The fact that you included a 20 year old snd SGA shows how much you struggled to defend your point Wemby having to be the focal point of his team and Chet not even getting a look shows the ridiculous depth the U.S. has compared to France.





Doesn’t matter. We are talking winning the Olympics and not individual accolades. The U.S. will have a prime Ja, Zion, Maxey, Edwards, Bam, Chet, Tatum, Brown, Brooks etc. no team in the world is matching that.


Now list your starting five for France, Serbia, Slovenia and Greece.







Name them. Name 2 players as good as Bogdanovic and Micic coming through Serbia’s youth team.



France was having Wemby initiating their offense because their guards were atrocious all tournament. You really have no idea what you are talking about

Tell me who is going to match up with Edwards, Zion, Ja, Book and Maxey in 2028 from France? We got Chet and Bam for Wemby. What you got?


Doesn’t matter. We aren’t playing the world team we are playing individual nations. Luke couldn’t drag his generational CPAs to even qualify. Greece can’t shoot which neutralizes Giannis completely. Jokic will be 33. Wemby will be playing with a bunch of EuroLeague guards.


Again did you even watch the other Olympic Games?



Why are you putting SGA over Ant, Book, Ja, Zion and Brown


Chet is a better prospect than Edey. Bam will be a 25-11 player by then as well.



Won 5th gold medal, 8 of 9 with an average margin of victory of 19 points including 2 blow out wins over Serbia, blow out win over Canada and led France by double digits for most of the game in France with the Refs giving them untold home cooking.

Sounds good to me.


Name them.

They are fear-mongers

 

[Braman]

Only one American in sight and he's still out there trying to find where he left his jumpshot.

We dont play ‘team world’.

You keep citing cumulative international improvement in an argument about individual country threats.

Also your argument is flawed bc 1) you’re assuming exponential growth of star talent when we havent seen that anywhere but the US. Meaning, there ain’t another Luka, Giannis, or Jokic coming for another generation. Ie Argentina had Ginobli 20 years ago, and havent come close to him nor have they gotten better since. Puerto Rico had Carlos arroyo, nobody since. Brazil Oscar Schmidt, Nene, nobody since. Spain Gasol brothers, nobody since

2) You’re ignoring that star international players can’t help where they from and their country-mates might be trash so their team isn’t a threat (Giannis and Greece) or they don’t even qualify. Ie Sabonis and Latvia, Siakim/Embiid and Cameroon, Kuminga and Congo

It’d be better to have a SPECIFIC conversation about the US vs France or Canada, not the wOrLd cAtcHin uP bc it’s a flawed argument

 

[Mister Terrific]

My mans really said Serbia will replace Micic and Bogdanovic in 4 years

Bogi might literally be the greatest shooting guard in Serbian history.

 

[Malcolmxxx_23]

My mans really said Serbia will replace Micic and Bogdanovic in 4 years

Bogi might literally be the greatest shooting guard in Serbian history.

Just look at the domination of Fiba u 17 and u 18

USA wins every year

 

[No1]

I DIDNT EVEN KNOW
THEY GOT TYUS JONES.

THATS HUGE.
THEY NEEDED A PG IN THE WORSE WAY







​

Yeah he signed a prove it deal. I was surprised he couldn’t get more.