Losses by Team USA in international competition are no longer surprising, so head coach Gregg Popovich bristled when that word was mentioned after his team fell to France this morning in its Olympic opener, tweets Ben Golliver of The Washington Post. France took control of the game late, finishing with a 16-2 run to claim an 83-76 victory that snapped a 25-game Olympic winning streak for the United States.
“When you lose a game, you’re not surprised,” Popovich told reporters. “You’re disappointed. I don’t understand the word ‘surprised.’ That sort of disses the French team, as if we’re supposed to beat them by 30. That’s a hell of a team.”
France was led by Celtics guard Evan Fournier, who scored 28 points and hit a three-pointer with a minute left that gave his team the lead for good. Fournier will become a free agent next month, but first he wants to enjoy the Olympic experience.
“They are better individually,” he said of the Americans, “but they can be beaten as a team” (Twitter link).
There’s more on the Olympics:
- The loss doesn’t come as a surprise to Georgetown head coach Patrick Ewing, who was part of the original “Dream Team” in 1992, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. “It’s harder to play now because of the Dream Team,” Ewing said. “All of the current players grew up looking up to us and watching us dominate the rest of the world. But the rest of the world caught up. There are so many talented players. Some of the NBA’s top players today come from all over the world. It wasn’t like that back then.’’
- Popovich is a legendary coach in the NBA, but he hasn’t achieved the same success in international basketball, notes Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press. The three teams Popovich has been part of in the Olympics or world championships have earned just one medal, an Olympic bronze in 2004.
- There’s been plenty of chaos for Team USA in its Olympic preparation, with COVID-19 disruptions and the late arrival of three team members who took part in the NBA Finals, but the players understand that expectations haven’t changed, Golliver states in a full story. “Every team wants to beat us,” Kevin Durant said. “Everybody wants to see us lose. A lot of guys dropped out, (and there have been) a lot of circumstances (affecting player availability). I’m sure other teams have seen us lose and feel confident coming into the tournament. We understand what we’re getting ourselves into, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
To the young NBA fan they can’t see what is wrong with the team. To a fan of the game all they see is a bunch of scorers with only a couple defensive players. this is why having 3 scorers don’t make you a great team you need balance.
simple and perfect
I also think a lot of young people probably don’t realize what international play is really like in terms of the different rules and style of play allowed. Like they may think they understand it on a conceptual level, but in reality the ramifications are much larger than their brains could conceive.
And that’s all on top of the US specific roster issues.
It really reminds me of a book I read on the US Miracle hockey team. Coach Brooks didn’t want to build an allstar team with the 1980 roster. It wasn’t about the best players, but the right players.
Coach Pop has the be held accountable. Coach K took over after 2004 and they played like a team. This team steps in the gym and expects to win no matter what they say.
I agree that, ultimately, the head coach must be held accountable. That’s just the way it works in sports. Pop’s teams have not done well.
Although, really, it’s probably not going to matter much since he might be retired by the next Olympics anyway.
Bravo belle victoire des français !
What’s Pop’s record as American coach? Can’t be good. Was terrible in the World Cup and now has lost more than he’s won in this campaign. Now he’s just hyping the other teams to make an excuse for himself. Without Duncan, he’s mediocre at best
So you see nothing wrong with terrible roster construction, improving international competition, zero size, zero chemistry, and a very soft NBA designed to promote entertainment at the cost of actual basketball, ie the complete opposite of Olympic style play.
This is why some folks do not like us Americans. You act as if we should be unbeatable due to sheer talent when the truth has always been this roster is flawed and was likely to struggle. In fact, several people around the game had acknowledged the US could easily lose this game. It was not THAT shocking.
But I am curious, what did you expect Pop to do? Erase all the iso ball his players love overnight? Add 40lbs and 4 inches to each member of the roster? It would be a bad situation for any HC. And like pretty much every head coach around Pop is, indeed, not a miracle worker. Spoelstra is the one guy I could see doing having done a definitively better job, as he is a superior in-game strategist.
He is part of the team building group and chooses guys like Kevin Love and Javale McGee over better potential players. What people hate about American arrogance is we expect to be handed things and can’t take responsibility for our failures. You think Canadians just say “well the other teams are really good” when they lose in hockey? No they get upset if they even lose the major juniors. If Pop is one of the best coaches of all time he should do better.
“…over better potential players”
Names. I need names. Without that, it’s impossible to judge one way or another.
Am I sure SOMEONE was available better than those guys? Sure. But were they good fits? Were they ready to jump in at a moment’s notice? Harder to say.
“If Pop is one of the best coaches of all time he should do better.”
I kind of agree with this irrespective of the circumstances, but you’re also basing most of your argument on raw emotion and not logic.
I definitely agree, though, with Pop needing to keep his mouth shut about praising the competition. I know what he’s trying to say, but it’s neither the time nor the place for doing so. It’s not that he accepts losing or doesn’t care about winning; he’s just trying to counter American arrogance but it comes across as acceptance of failure given the circumstances.
Just off the top of my head Duncan Robinson, Trae Young, Julius Randle, Christian Wood. Just replace Johnson with Robinson and McGee with Wood and it’s better.
I’m glad the rest of the world is catching up the the USA in basketball talent. Winning a medal when you’re basically the only country that plays that sport is lame. That being said, there’s still far more talent on the team USA roster than any other team, and they really have no excuse not bringing home gold.
Example why Curry is a great player. When KD joined the warriors he step back from being a scorer to be a team player and win. What I see on the Olympic team is a bunch of players wanting to be the star and not the team player. Toward the end of the game they were more concern with being the hero instead of stopping the other team from scoring.
I don’t think team USA has any serious leadership of players to take the Olympics seriously. If USA loses the gold the team should be ashamed of themselves. NO EXCUSES!!!!
A few of them are taking it seriously but what i have seen was a bunch of guys getting the ball and shooting 3s. Nobody setting picks and screens. nobody giving that extra to get a loose ball.
The U.S. team has a lot of very good players, but most of the best American players have chosen not to participate, and I don’t blame them at all, (especially given the situation regarding these particular Olympics). Taking that into consideration, as well as the fact that the team has had very little time to prepare together, and it is certainly not a surprise that this U.S. squad is relatively unimpressive. I, for one, have expected them to struggle ever since the roster was announced, and I doubt I am alone in that assessment.
If they had even one good physical big on the roster I think they win this. It’s just such a huge loss in international play, even more so than the other issues on the roster imo.
But like you, I don’t really blame players for not playing in these particular Olympics. Not only do you have the unusual circumstances, but you’ve got a shortened offseason after a year with a lot of injuries. Understandable that guys want to stay home and rest up, and understandle that front offices would probably hope for that in private.
Pop is just massively overrated as a coach, plain and simple. Tim Duncan masked a lot of his issues over the years.
Name one head coach who won without talent. It’s not even about Pop. It’s having this unrealistic expectation that great coaches should be able to win without talent. None of them can. Even Pop himself acknowledged Duncan made him look a lot better than he is.
More importantly, I’d argue Pop’s greatest strength is in being able to develop players and improve the games of secondary players on the roster. But that takes time and familiarity, which makes him not the best fit for the Olympics. So while I’m not sure what any other head coach could have done with this group of guys given their significant team-related issues, I do think Pop is not the best Xs and Os guy. And I say this as a Spurs fan.
I would like to see what a guy like Spoelstra could do in the Olympics. Then again, is any head coach capable of reigning in or shaping up a bunch of soft iso-loving stars? Not so sure about that, but maybe more defeats like this one will give them more incentive to adjust their games. And, hopefully, for other players to actually want to represent their country.
What we’re seeing on the world scene is what I’m seeing with the Youth of today. The Youth of today are way better basketball players than I remember when I was younger.
These kids are incredible today, they can all shoot the three and are athletic and know how to play the game. When I was a young scrub the 3-point shot was a terrible choice mostly. Between back then and today kids were jacking up irresponsible threes at a higher rate but now 10 years after that or five years after that these kids are hitting the shot. It’s incredible to see the skill and athleticism in today’s 18 to 20 year old at LA Fitness across the country.
So all that to say the world scene and the world basketball player is getting better as well.., as opposed to 20-30 years ago. Guys are playing and picking up the game and working hard to get better. Great to see the level of basketball Rising.
European kids are being taught the game based on fundamentals, footwork, and shooting, whereas USA grassroots is based in free-wheeling AAU, dribbling, and athleticism.
US Olympic teams of the past (Dream Team, etc…) were more fundamentally sound, so their games were able to adapt to the International game style than the USA athletes are able to. You can’t simulate it in practice – especially scrimmaging daily against the same type of player on the Select Team.
That’s why they took loses even in the exhibition games. Only international ball can prepare you for international ball. And, if your game is based on athleticism and individual skills, you’re not gonna be ready in a month.
When people look at Giannis and think he doesn’t have the offensive “bag” of Durant and some others, they don’t realize that he’s an extremely fundamentally sound offensive player, and that lack of flash/flair isn’t a lack of offensive ability. He gets 2’s as well or better than anyone in the league.
As I mentioned weeks ago – and was disagreed with by some on this forum – the world has definitely caught up with USA Basketball. Ironically, what may keep them from PASSING us could be if we continue to get our butts kicked these 2020 Olympics.
Maybe then, we’ll reevaluate our youth programs and start implementing ways to better teach our young players the way to play the game.
Instead of teaching our 7 years olds how to EuroStep a layup before they can even make 5 regular layups in a row…. nvm
Disappointing, but somewhat predictable. If you’re not a homer of your home country, you already knew the US was beatable due to its significant flaws. Not much else to say.
And, honestly, I’m not sure where the US goes from here. The game is getting less and less physical and less and less about team play. You can’t just flip a switch on that during the Olympics. Those bad habits take time to change.
Maybe this embarrassment for the league will give it some incentive to bring back a little more physicality to the game, but I doubt it. They will just continue to cater to casual fans who care more about highlights than the game of basketball itself while raking in profit.
In the US, the almighty dollar always wins in the end (sorry, couldn’t help but end with the cheesy one-liner lol).
People can blame Pop all they want and they are going to. But to blame him and ignore the absolutely piss poor job they did building this team is ignoring the 10,000 lb elephant in the room. You don’t have a team. You have a bunch of ball dominant players who are all score first mentality guys. This team was always going to struggle.
Pop is a cranky old goat who has lost it.
Since 2019 (FIBA) it was becoming obvious that Team USA was morphing back into an All Star team of the willing. Before 2005, this is what Team USA had become, and, not surprisingly, it was becoming common place for the US to lose in international competitions. USA BB under Colangelo had the mission of forming a “standing team” that would consist of players (and coaches) who made multi-year (multi-event) commitments. They were firm, and the rising NBA stars at the time (LBJ, Melo, Wade, Bosh) bought in. Since then both USA BB has become lax, de-emphasizing the standing team concept. This team is the result.
Pop is a windbag. But only a small part of an NBA HC’s skill set translates to forming a team in a few weeks out of a bunch of players thrown together based only on talent and willingness.
This team can still win, but it shouldn’t be thought of as an odds on favorite for Gold. Gold or not, though, Grant Hill needs to rethink a few things going forward.
Where’s all the commenters who, in the last two weeks, were saying, “It’s just exhibition games… they don’t count… USA will be fine.” ???
Gotta know what you’re lookin at, not HOPE what you’re lookin at….
just like i didn’t say, “relax, it’ll be a cake walk cuz we can just flip the switch when it counts.” regardless it wasn’t a bad game when you hold the opposing team to 5 points total with less than 5 minutes to go to start the 4th quarter.
I don’t get going small. We should be going big. Oh wait we don’t have bigs. USA just didn’t shoot well. So you are Not going to win with a small lineup.When you don’t shoot. World is catching up, is true. But other nations know each other play together longer.
USA team has to be set sooner. And work together longer to be ready. Seems arrogant to think you can just walk on and win. Teams need time to come together and build chemistry.
Its not Dream Team 1991, anymore. You will never be them.
Don’t know why Frank didn’t play. Was looking forward to watching him play. Fournier is a shooter Knicks can use.
Curmudgeon Popovich can’t function without Duncan..
you guys need to start watching the u19 and under fiba games. seriously.
part of the issue is current top NBA players don’t want to play they are in my opinion selfish , they already have a ton of money but don’t give two sh**s about representing our country so they decline to play. it does give others a chance but still bs . I mean if a player is hurt then I understand declining to play. it seems that alot just don’t have that country pride to play in the Olympics. my opinion.