Dwindling US basketball fortunes a concern
09/14/2023 08:23 AM
The 2023 FIBA World Cup has served as yet another reminder of just how low the USA Basketball industry is falling in standards. The US will be going back home without a medal following their defeat in the bronze match by Canada. The fact that the USA is home to the NBA, arguably the best basketball league in the world, makes it a failure for the US failing to clinch gold at a basketball World Cup. That is the case for the USA national team at the moment. There could be an argument that the roster sent to the World Cup would be the reason but that’s a whole other angle. Europe, South America and also North American countries are now sending quite strong players and teams, a good number drawn from the NBA. The justification for this should be in Canada’s 127-118 win in overtime in the bronze medal match. The medal was Canada’s first at the World Cup in 87 years. This should spur Canada well for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and many more nations can look up to this.
Take inspiration
It will be really interesting to see how other nations take inspiration from Canada’s achievement and the USA’s decline. Definitely scales will be tipped over and this is an opportunity even for bettors in the UK to take advantage of the pricey odds that could follow here. A closer look at the UK basketball betting sites gives this impression, and Cheekypunter has the best of their features well analyzed. These sites include Bet365, BetVictor, William Hill and more, all rated as per their top features. Back to the USA performance at the 2023 World Cup, it is clear early preps need to be put in place for next year’s Olympic Games. There will definitely be motivation for the Olympic Games and we will see most of the players unavailable for the World Cup available then. But that’s not a total guarantee of success, looking at the advances made by other nations. The big concern is that the US hasn’t won the world title since the back-to-back triumphs in 2010 and 2014. If there was recovery after the 2004 Olympic Games disappointment, there has to be a means to bounce back now. There is a way to bring back the dominance but the powers that be must also take cue from obvious signs.
International players
The number of international players in the NBA should send a signal that the world is closing the gap. Lately most of the NBA MVPs have been players born and bred outside the USA. However, it is the lack of collective synergies that keeps haunting the USA. The USA can produce a team of home born top players to challenge the best in the world. That is never in doubt, and assuming it was intentional sending a weak team to the World Cup, then there’s a lot of work to be done. There can never be a question of how talented the team was, but without the top playmakers, the team was always going to struggle against the best in Europe. Now it is time to address the lack of continuity; that players can choose not to feature in the World Cup but be available for the Olympics isn’t particularly appealing.
