By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The USA roster turned out to be a revolving door with Bam Adebayo being the latest addition and big names decided to not travel to China.
However, this year the biggest strength of Team USA is sitting on the bench. Gregg Popovich is making his national team debut and this is all that you need to know about the USA chances on this FIBA World Cup.
One could argue that the respect that Popovich enjoys outside the USA borders is even bigger than what he gets in the States. His resume speaks itself about Pop’s abilities and Serbs practically consider him one of their own.
But there’s more. Popovich was present during some of the worst defeats in USA history, an assistant of George Karl back in the 2002 FIBA World Cup at Indianapolis and also an assistant of his mentor, Larry Brown, in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Popovich knows the competition because the Spurs are one of the savviest NBA franchises on the matters of world basketball plus he has felt it on his skin. He was right there when Serbia, Spain, Lithuania, and Argentina beat the USA and he totally understands that the stakes are high.
The World is out to get the USA in the FIBA World Cup and Popovich is more than aware of that. “We respect the teams (opponents) more than you’ll know,” he said to FIBA. “Our eyes are wide open what the task ahead is.”
Popovich was just a spectator when USA was defeated for the last time, back in 2006 by the Greek national team in the FIBA World Cup semifinal.
And while that was a young team, it included LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Antony right when they were entering their prime and it was the start of a successful overhaul of the national team program under Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Popovich has the task to continue this legacy. Since then Team USA restored the world order and remained undefeated on every major tournament while creating a national team continuity, an idea that was foreign to the States before the disappointments of 2002 and 2004.
That’s why Popovich is the right man for the job. No matter the players he will have available, he totally understands the competition and also what his players need to do, in order to be successful. And on the way, this success can translate also to their upcoming NBA season. Maybe the fact that many marquee names are missing, can make Popovich’s version of the USA national team even more dangerous.
“It’s not about trying to look good or get a new contract,” Popovich said to FIBA, “and it’s interesting because one of the other tangential things, one of the other offshoots to this, what Jerry, Coach K (Krzyzewski) and the staff did in the past, besides winning, was almost to a man these players go back to their teams and they’re better players. They competed against the best, they’ve been selfless in that endeavor and I think it benefits their teams when they get back home.”
Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.