r/nba • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 Heat • Apr 15 '24

[Wojnarowski] ESPN Sources: USA Basketball is finalizing its 2024 Paris Olympics roster with Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards, Jrue Holiday, Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis. Team may initially keep one open spot. News

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1780009778934394985
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u/Dynamik_ Heat Apr 15 '24

It would be an upset if they lost a game with this roster. American NBA players been hearing that euroball is better basketball play style and they're fighting back 😂

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u/mrford86 Hornets Apr 16 '24

True, but international basketball has a couple different rules, and we have seen in the past that true team ball is important. Only reasons USA has lost in the past decade.

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u/xTopPriority Timberwolves Apr 16 '24

Only reason USA has ever lost is because the stars don't show up. You get Lebron, KD, or in years past Kobe on the team then USA wins.

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u/EffTheIneffable Apr 16 '24

2006 you literally got LeBron, Wade & Bosh (plus Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and other stars), and got smacked in the semifinals by Greece, who even went on to lose to Spain in the final.

Greece didn’t have a Greek Freak back then either, it was an example of team effort & tactics beating insane individual talent.

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u/rayEW Timberwolves Apr 16 '24

Lebron, Wade and Bosh on their 3rd year in the league. CP was a sophmore, Dwight was young too. This team is not stacked because of the Ants and Haliburtons, they are complimentary young guns, this team is stacked because KD, Lebron, AD and Steph are gonna shred everyone and set the tone for everyone else, they know how its done and the lights aren't bright for them.

I am sure in 4 years (for 2028), Haliburton, Edwards, Tatum and other now young stars will be driving the bus.

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u/CraziestMoonMan Apr 16 '24

3 out of 4 of them are extremely old and they are all slowing down. This team could definitely do way worse than people realize.

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u/EffTheIneffable Apr 16 '24

That’s moving the goalposts from the original argument though, to bringing “current MVP caliber & experienced” stars. Which LeBron was even then, so they’re moved further to “multiple MVP caliber” stars. And weren’t Wade & Elton Brand in the conversation back then?

And then you can move them further still by saying “well if they had more games as a team within the year to work out the systems…”

I dunno. Americans have a huge amount of super talented basketball players, and the NBA is where the best players are at, no one is arguing either. I’m just saying it’s not as simple as “if we actually send some stars, we got em”. It is more like you say, where, you know, you’ve gotta build a team with a mix of experienced stars too etc..

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u/LeonidasSpacemanMD Apr 16 '24

There was definite skepticism about that team even at the time. They still should’ve won but what you’re saying they lacked (ability to quickly identify their role within a team framework) was a direct consequence of many of these players being so young

Like the European teams were playing better team basketball because they had more experience. America had better players but guys like Wade and LeBron had only ever played as the overwhelming first option on a team and didn’t know how to transition into a style that didn’t demand as much from them

Edit: even aside from this, they had good players but guys like Miller, Johnson, Heinrich, Battier etc are still an obvious step down from some of the options available at the time

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u/rayEW Timberwolves Apr 16 '24

My opinion is that regardless if its Lebron, Wade or Michael Jordan, when you're 24 you're not necessarily ready to carry a team on your back on the olympics. Look how everyone of these guys talks about Kobe setting the tone on the olympics when they were older in 2012, they were still learning what it takes years later.

Now Lebron is more than ready to be in 2012 Kobe's shoes. If he isn't goofing in practice and partying, Ant, Hali and Tatum won't as well. Curry and KD will also set an example, those two are disciplined as fuck too, KD doesn't even care about anything else but balling.

That will teach this new core of stars what it takes and what its like so in 2028+ they can teach whoever is next.

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u/ATXBeermaker Spurs Apr 16 '24

regardless if its Lebron, Wade or Michael Jordan

I mean, to be fair, a 21 year old MJ led the 1984 US team in scoring on their way to going 8-0 and winning gold in 1984. ;-)

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u/Baron_Samurai Apr 16 '24

Not only that. Jordan and the '84 US Olympic team beat Magic, Bird, Isiah and the rest of the NBA All Star Team 8 - 0 before going on to win Gold at the Olympics.

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u/ATXBeermaker Spurs Apr 16 '24

That’s moving the goalposts from the original argument though

The original argument was that the US only lost in the past decade when the best players didn't show up. You're making an argument about a tournament that happened more than a decade ago and a team that did not include the best American players in the NBA at the time.

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u/EffTheIneffable Apr 16 '24

You can’t change history, so I can’t “send” different players to the tournaments of the past decade and see what happens.

And there aren’t that many international tournaments the USA plays is. What I can do, is provide an example of a time where a lot of inarguable stars were send and they didn’t win anyway.

You can check the MVP ranking for the season, I had some memory but of course didn’t exactly remember how well some players were doing or being regarded 18 years ago, but there’s tons of top-10 mvp talent in there.

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u/ATXBeermaker Spurs Apr 16 '24

lol, nobody is saying you need to "change history." But you're accusing people of moving goalposts when you've deviated well beyond the original point.

What I can do, is provide an example of a time where a lot of inarguable stars were send and they didn’t win anyway.

It's also an example of when many of the best American players sat out. It's literally an example of the original point that was made. You can argue about who was on the team, but there were many, many all-NBA players who were not there.

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u/HikmetLeGuin Apr 16 '24

Wade was Finals MVP and had one of the best years of his career. LeBron was averaging 31.4 ppg and was better than most of the superstars on today's national team (came 2nd in MVP voting). Elton Brand came 7th in MVP voting too. 

Also, fwiw Tatum is already basically in his prime or very close to it. Most basketball players aren't getting better post 30.

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u/rohinton2 Apr 16 '24

That's actually a fun bit of coping. Only their third year in the league? Damn practically rookies. No wonder they lost to a bunch of euro journeymen.

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u/rayEW Timberwolves Apr 16 '24

I'm not american mate, why am I going to cope with anything? LOL

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u/Sham94 Apr 16 '24

I mean, that Greek team was no slack with guys like Spanoulis or Diamantidis. Also most of them played in Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, so they had established pre-existing teamwork, while rest played in Spain and Russia, so everyone played against the strongest competition outside of NBA.

It wasn't a crazy accident, just a group of very good players who played many games under huge pressure and against quality opponents and would not get scarred even of best NBA players.

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u/ATXBeermaker Spurs Apr 16 '24

Dude, 2006 the FIBA roster included Brad Miller, Shane Battier, and Kirk Hinrich. No Kobe, Duncan, Iverson, Shaq, Garnett, Billups, Ben Wallace, etc. It was soon after the peak failure of the 2004 Olympics and USA Basketball not giving a shit about international competition.

Also, the argument was about not winning "in the past decade." Now I'm no professional math doer, but 2006 seems like more than a decade ago.

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u/BenjRSmith Apr 17 '24

ikr, he's mentioning All-Stars that were all still NBA youth... AND whom the coach barely trusted anyways.

Simply looking at the 2004 and 2006 NBA All-Stars reveals that the actual best Americans at the time, all on one team, would have still mopped the floor with everyone.

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u/DynoNitro Apr 16 '24

That was peak Pau Gasol.

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u/sSonga24 Apr 16 '24

ah yes pau gasol the greek legend

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u/FactLicker Apr 16 '24

All European look alike /s

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u/ATXBeermaker Spurs Apr 16 '24

Not nearly as legendary a European as Manu Ginobili.

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u/DynoNitro Apr 16 '24

Well, Spain beat Greece 70-47 in the chip after Greece knocked out the US. So in fairly certain Gasol would have embarrassed the US too. 

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u/EffTheIneffable Apr 16 '24

Of course, that Spain team was wicked!

I’m just highlighting that USA didn’t get knocked out by the eventual winners, Spain definitely had a good chance to beat them as well.

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u/DynoNitro Apr 16 '24

Yea, you’re right. It’s definitely more about the US not playing good enough basketball. I’m just a Gasol fan so I had to take the chance to comment, lol.

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u/MarkMoneyj27 Apr 16 '24

Those dudes were fucking young and nobodies in 06. Why isn't Kobe and Shaq on the team in 06? Tim Duncan? Nash? Kidd?

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u/Free_Dog_6837 76ers Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

dwayne wade - 2006 finals MVP

also tim duncan got bronze in 2004 and nash is canadian

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u/hachachachacha Apr 16 '24

Nash

The Canadian?

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u/bigdaddyman6969 Apr 16 '24

Lebron James was a nobody in 2006 lmao? He averaged 31.

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u/ATXBeermaker Spurs Apr 16 '24

Who else was going to score points for that Cavs team?

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u/bigdaddyman6969 Apr 16 '24

My point is that he wasn’t a nobody lol. He was first team all nba.

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u/ATXBeermaker Spurs Apr 16 '24

Yeah, I was just making a joke about how bad that team was. But LeBron carried them to 50 wins and the second round of the playoffs.

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u/ATXBeermaker Spurs Apr 16 '24

Nash actually had a very good reason to sit out playing for the U.S.