By John Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
USA settled with seventh place in the 2019 FIBA World Cup. Most critics single out the players missing with Jerry Colangelo admitting he will remember who “didn’t show up” in the call for “war”. Talking to SI, the managing director of USA Basketball added that the early favorites for gold at China would have accomplished their goal if players remaining available stayed healthy.
“I believe that if we didn’t have those injuries, we would have won” he took out referring to key injuries to Jayson Tatum, Kyle Lowry, Kyle Kuzma and others, “The injuries were just too much to absorb.”
“Basketball is the ultimate team game” he added commenting on the competition, “The more familiarity that players have with one another on the court, the better. Look at guys on Spain, Argentina. Luis Scola is 39, played like he was 20.”
“The disappointment I feel is not from the guys who said they wouldn’t play” mentioned Colangelo explaining, “It’s those that said they would, and then backed out. We’ll deal with those cases individually. It’s important to field as strong a team as possible.”
Despite falling short of the gold medals, USA punched a direct ticket to the 2020 Olympic Games. Next summer at Tokyo, Team USA will look to get back on track in terms of success at the highest level of international basketball.