Kevin Durant speaks on whether the World is catching up to USA Basketball

[UpAndComing]

And yet, still not a 1v1.

A singularly talented and driven person can make it from anywhere in the world, but a system is needed to produce endless waves of top-level talent.

The world will be "close" when they can produce enough talent to split the rosters in the top league in the world. I'm not convinced it's when they send their absolute best playing as hard as they can to only occasionally make teams featuring some of our best players stop goofing off in games with unfamiliar rules.

You can explain it away all you want, the fact is that Team USA needed a non-native naturalized citizen to squeak by a win against Serbia

And saying other countries don't have the "system" to maintain that talent is an irrelevant point. There are South Sudan type of teams that pop up every 4 years that are threats. Whether they are old threats or new threats

 

[Raw Sauce]

You can explain it away all you want, the fact is that Team USA needed a non-native naturalized citizen to squeak by a win against Serbia

And saying other countries don't have the "system" to maintain that talent is an irrelevant point. There are South Sudan type of teams that pop up every 4 years that are threats. Whether they are old threats or new threats

And you can throw out all the nuance of the discussion and say only the point that supports your argument is valid. The crux of your argument is that the law of large numbers/small sample sizes have no bearing on your opinion so there's not really much else for me to say to you.

 

[Born2BKing]

The dismissiveness is tone deaf

America used to say the same thing about Tennis 20 years ago... until Roger Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic showed up

Really?

 

[Apprentice]

Bad take, they have not been “Dominating”

Lost the World Cup to Germany

Been in dog fights in medal games vs Germany, Serbia and France; Dream Team and other team USA teams for the most part would whoop on nikkas, Spain in 08 with two hall of fame bigs and the 04 team are the only anomalies

Without Embiid, they lose against Serbia, he ain’t even American fr

What he’s saying sounds good but it isn’t reality, just wait until he, Curry and LeBron retire; Canada and France will have the ups on US basketball

 

[Miggs]

I need him somewhere where he can at least split handling duties. I don’t see it happening with that lineup brother

What you mean YOU need ??? EYE need !!!!
Scottie/Dylan/Darryn lineup is gonna carry the East for a decade.

 

[UpAndComing]

Really?

Yupp. Tennis was dominated by Americans in the 80s and 90s, were basically Hollywood stars back then, and it was a laughable conversation to think that anything would change

- McEnroe, Jimmy Conners, and Chris Evert in the 80s
- Sampras, Agassi, Jim Courier of the 90s
- Serena & Venus Williams of the early 2000s

International players were always in Tennis winning titles. But the first crack was Federer where he beat Sampras and started his era, Then Nadal, then Djokovic
Women's tennis players won some titles here and there, but the last American Man to win a Grand Slam title was Andy Roddikk in 2003

 

[Born2BKing]

Yupp. Tennis was dominated by Americans in the 80s and 90s, were basically Hollywood stars back then, and it was a laughable conversation to think that anything would change

- McEnroe, Jimmy Conners, and Chris Evert in the 80s
- Sampras, Agassi, Jim Courier of the 90s
- Serena & Venus Williams of the early 2000s

International players were always in Tennis winning titles. But the first crack was Federer where he beat Sampras and started his era, Then Nadal, then Djokovic
Women's tennis players won some titles here and there, but the last American Man to win a Grand Slam title was Andy Roddikk in 2003

Damn, I never knew this. I always thought tennis was cultivated in Europe.

 

[In The Zone '98]

You can explain it away all you want, the fact is that Team USA needed a non-native naturalized citizen to squeak by a win against Serbia

And saying other countries don't have the "system" to maintain that talent is an irrelevant point. There are South Sudan type of teams that pop up every 4 years that are threats. Whether they are old threats or new threats

So you're perspective is that if two American centers were splitting those minutes they wouldn't have won ?

 

[Trojan 24]

He's right. If Ime or Mazzulla coached the Olympic squad last summer they woulda boat raced everybody. Instead Kerr decided to have a team of premier world class athletes play like the flabby Lakers

 

[CHICAGO]

Basketball is as close to a 1v1 sport as you can get, with the star player/players having a big influence on the outcome of the game. All this talk of "the international game not being close" when you still had Team USA go down the wire with Serbia, and needed a non-native naturalized citizen in Embiid to go toe to toe with Jokic to squeak by to get a win

AS KD SAID....

THE USA BEAT SERBIA 3 fukkING
TIMES LAST SUMMER
AND EMBIID DIDNT DO shyt
IN THE FIRST 2 GAMES.

YOU PLAY A TEAM OF PROS
ENOUGH TIMES THEY CAN
EVENTUALLY MAKE A GAME CLOSE OR
EVEN PULL AN UPSET
EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE.


​

 

[cartierhoe]

AS KD SAID....

THE USA BEAT SERBIA 3 fukkING
TIMES LAST SUMMER
AND EMBIID DIDNT DO shyt
IN THE FIRST 2 GAMES.

YOU PLAY A TEAM OF PROS
ENOUGH TIMES THEY CAN
EVENTUALLY MAKE A GAME CLOSE OR
EVEN PULL AN UPSET
EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE.


​

I knew that 3rd game was gonna be tough considering they beat them pretty easily the first 2, with KD himself going off in one of those. But to the topic I think USA Basketball should be fine going forward, the only team in my opinion to worry about is Germany and prob Canada (and great Canadian players go to HS and/or college in the US anyway). Once Jokic, Giannis, and Luka are done playing those teams will be back in the gutter. And it looks like Spo will be taking over going forward so I trust him to get it right. We'll be fine as long as we consistently produce high end talent at a wide scale.

 

[CHICAGO]

I knew that 3rd game was gonna be tough considering they beat them pretty easily the first 2, with KD himself going off in one of those. But to the topic I think USA Basketball should be fine going forward, the only team in my opinion to worry about is Germany and prob Canada (and great Canadian players go to HS and/or college in the US anyway). Once Jokic, Giannis, and Luka are done playing those teams will be back in the gutter. And it looks like Spo will be taking over going forward so I trust him to get it right. We'll be fine as long as we consistently produce high end talent at a wide scale.

AINT NOBODY WORRIED
ABOUT NO DAMN CANADA/GERMANY.

THOSE TEAMS GO ALL OUT
IN THE WORLD CUP WHEN WE
SEND THE C SQUAD BUT
WHEN THE BIG DOGS
SHOW FOR THE OLYMPICS
THEY DONT EVEN MEDAL.

GERMANY AINT NEVER WON
A MEDAL IN OLYMPIC BASKETBALL
AND CANADA HASNT WON ONE
SINCE HITLER WAS RUNNING shyt.

FRANCE IS THE ONLY TEAM
WE HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT
BECAUSE WEMBYS CAREER
JUST STARTED.


​

 

[VegetasHairline]

Canada hasn't won a medal in the Olympics since 1936.

 

[cartierhoe]

AINT NOBODY WORRIED
ABOUT NO DAMN CANADA/GERMANY.

THOSE TEAMS GO ALL OUT
IN THE WORLD CUP WHEN WE
SEND THE C SQUAD BUT
WHEN THE BIG DOGS
SHOW FOR THE OLYMPICS
THEY DONT EVEN MEDAL.

GERMANY AINT NEVER WON
A MEDAL IN OLYMPIC BASKETBALL
AND CANADA HASNT WON ONE
SINCE HITLER WAS RUNNING shyt.

FRANCE IS THE ONLY TEAM
WE HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT
BECAUSE WEMBYS CAREER
JUST STARTED.


​

I forgot to mention France, and I was trying to be nice mentioning those other squads

 

[SchoolboyC]

Basketball is as close to a 1v1 sport as you can get, with the star player/players having a big influence on the outcome of the game. All this talk of "the international game not being close" when you still had Team USA go down the wire with Serbia, and needed a non-native naturalized citizen in Embiid to go toe to toe with Jokic to squeak by to get a win

The counter argument is what makes the 1 game Serbia played against the U.S. last year that they didn’t get blown out in more indicative of how they match up against us than the two they got blown out in?