Official 2024 Men's Olympic Basketball Tournament Thread

[spurraider21]

but but the world cup team featuring 3rd year summer leaguer walker kessler as the only center on the roster struggled inside. its not like anthony davis, bam adebayo, and joel embiid will make THAT much of a difference. the world has caught up!

[LeBowen]

literally curry's first olympics at age 36 and its just business as usual for him. if the US had sent their a-team in recent tournaments, this narrative that the world has caught up would have been dead long ago

The world didn't catch up, but is definitely catching up.
A-team is still way ahead of everyone, but they're old.
Bam, Booker, Ant, Haliburton and Tatum are the only players on this roster who will probably be in contention for 2028 Olympics.

And it's not like many young star players stayed at home.
Brown, Morant, Fox, Trae, Brunson, Banchero, JJJ, Chet will probably be the rest of contention for 2028 roster.

I'm not sure that's a team that will be better than France with all their influx of talent and Wemby being by far the best player in the world.

[spurraider21]

The world didn't catch up, but is definitely catching up.
A-team is still way ahead of everyone, but they're old.
Bam, Booker, Ant, Haliburton and Tatum are the only players on this roster who will probably be in contention for 2028 Olympics.

And it's not like many young star players stayed at home.
Brown, Morant, Fox, Trae, Brunson, Banchero, JJJ, Chet will probably be the rest of contention for 2028 roster.

I'm not sure that's a team that will be better than France with all their influx of talent and Wemby being by far the best player in the world.

ill grant that 2028 may be different, but this year's roster is so absurd that it astonishes me people underestimated them

a lot of these other countries are just too thin. like sure, greece has giannis. how many other top 100 players on the world play for greece. how many on serbia besides jokic? slovenia besides doncic?

gobert will be washed for france, so you will have wemby as an elite player... and? theres a possibility, but far from a certainty that any of risacher/sarr/coulibaly/salaun/traore/diadet will be top 100-ish players in 4 years. you'd bet on that american group of up and comers you've mentioned over this french group 10 times out of 10.

canada at least has a number of good players and they'll remain interesting.

as far as US up and comers, you'd also have Maxey, J-Dub, and honestly probably Flagg as well. could also potentially be looking at Zion. either way, its a far, far more impressive collection of talent than any other country. i think people mistakenly just think of "US vs World" instead of "US vs country A" and "US vs country B"

[Chinook]

I think the fact that there are more teams than ever that the US has to take seriously is going to help them rather than hurt. It was much easier for the USANT to lose focus and think only Spain and (sometimes) Argentina were threats. But as this pre-tourney docket shows, the US values using the better teams to get sharp. Could a team beat the US? Yes. Is there any team even close to as good as them? Not at all. This is a transition period for a lot of clubs, and it's not likely that other national teams are going to be able to develop deep chemistry with their players like Argentina and Spain did. We'd have to see the best players from other NTs either grow up together or play many more games as teammates. The NBA being a mostly American league means it's more likely that the best US players will be teammates than the best non-US players. Look at Boston with four USANT-caliber guys who have all played together for years. So long as the US continues to bring in role-players and stars, they can make that work. The best players for other teams may not even play in the same league, let alone be teammates.

[TD 21]

Unless Canada has some high quality bigs on the way or Australia has star power period on the way, France probably has the best chance of upsetting a U.S.A. "A-Team" in the next decade or so.

Maybe it's overrating Traore, but they at least have a potential answer to somewhat alleviate their back court issue going forward.

literally curry's first olympics at age 36 and its just business as usual for him. if the US had sent their a-team in recent tournaments, this narrative that the world has caught up would have been dead long ago

Yeah, starting on the two-yard line, pretending he's a champion (Embiid has decided to follow suit), then having the media continue to brainwash the masses by deifying/mythologizing him. The fraud is an expert at that.

That's why him and the other two geriatrics are going, to play Avengers (media will pretend they're the reason for the gold) and win for the final time in their careers.

[skin27]

US will have a hard time getting that gold in 2028. Thats for sure

[MultiTroll]

Deep love of country.

Actually, LeBron, Steph, and other NBA stars do get paid for playing in the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee doesn't pay them, but Nike, Adidas, Gatorade, Under Armour, or other sponsors do. Participating in the Olympics gives players international exposure and increases their market value for endorsements. Shoe companies are the driving force behind the off-court incomes for NBA stars. These deals typically start at $5 million and can climb as high as $15 million with royalty payments in a good year for elite guys like LeBron James. This bumps up royalty payments, which end up in the pockets of the players. More than half of Nike's revenue comes from outside North America. Nike often sends their best players to Asia and Europe for store openings or basketball clinics in the NBA off-season. It's all about making Nike bigger. The Olympics are like another version of that. The Olympics can directly stimulate new endorsement deals.

[ace3g]

[spurraider21]

US will have a hard time getting that gold in 2028. Thats for sure

imo they'll still be clear cut favorites. to be seen if they will be able to steamroll though

[skin27]

imo they'll still be clear cut favorites. to be seen if they will be able to steamroll though

For sure lebron curry and durant aren't there anymorr for USA

[Limguogolo]

Deep love of country.

Actually, LeBron, Steph, and other NBA stars do get paid for playing in the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee doesn't pay them, but Nike, Adidas, Gatorade, Under Armour, or other sponsors do. Participating in the Olympics gives players international exposure and increases their market value for endorsements. Shoe companies are the driving force behind the off-court incomes for NBA stars. These deals typically start at $5 million and can climb as high as $15 million with royalty payments in a good year for elite guys like LeBron James. This bumps up royalty payments, which end up in the pockets of the players. More than half of Nike's revenue comes from outside North America. Nike often sends their best players to Asia and Europe for store openings or basketball clinics in the NBA off-season. It's all about making Nike bigger. The Olympics are like another version of that. The Olympics can directly stimulate new endorsement deals.

I guess it's all good until an athlete speaks out on the genocide in Gaza. This is probably why we hear so few athletes say anything about Palestine. (I'm mentioning Bella Hadid. Guess even models have more guts than simple millionaires playing with an orange ball.)

[LeBowen]

Doesn't USA basketball (as an organization) have enough revenue? Flying all over the place instead of actually preparing for the tournament is a bold choice.
From Abu Dhabi to London, down 14 at the half against South Sudan.

[Russ]

Doesn't USA basketball (as an organization) have enough revenue? Flying all over the place instead of actually preparing for the tournament is a bold choice.
From Abu Dhabi to London, down 14 at the half against South Sudan.

This is what happens when you cut Keldon Johnson from a team.

[LeBowen]

Maluach > Flagg, tbh.

[Barfunk]

USA comeback

[Barfunk]

Great playmaking by D-White

[Barfunk]

Smh

[Gorepopovich]

Ouch.

[Limguogolo]

Canada will end up with gold if Team USA continues to play with such defense. We don't play FIBA ​​like a regular season NBA game. Fan of South Sudan's style of play: attack the basket, shot, and that's it. Effective against a defenseless team.

[exstatic]

Canada will end up with gold if Team USA continues to play with such defense. We don't play FIBA ​​like a regular season NBA game. Fan of South Sudan's style of play: attack the basket, shot, and that's it. Effective against a defenseless team.

Canada ended up Bronze in the WC. They play the same brand of ball that we do, infected with AAU bull . Both countries players come through the same system.

[lefty20]

[spurraider21]

Just coasting tbh

[skin27]

LOL US almost lose to south sudan

[skin27]

Spurs should sign shavok tbh

[TD 21]

This team will likely depth their way to gold, but with Embiid in his current state, the lack of an MVP caliber player is glaring. Late prime Davis and ancient James are their best players, yet media is pretending they're in contention for GOAT team ever.

It doesn't look to be getting better anytime soon either. Off the top, this is the top youngish or young established talent: Young, Brown, Tatum, Ball, Miller, Mitc , Mobley, Cunningham, Haliburton, Bane, Jackson Jr., Morant, Adebayo, Edwards, Bridges, Brunson, Williamson, Holmgren, Williams, Banchero, Suggs, Maxey, Booker, Fox, Barnes.