France League

I still remember the excitement building up as the 2019 USA Basketball World Cup team began taking shape, though if I'm being completely honest, there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that this wasn't going to be our strongest squad. Having followed USA Basketball for over two decades, I could sense something different about this particular roster construction. The initial list of 20 finalists looked promising enough on paper, but as training camp progressed and players began withdrawing, that familiar American basketball dominance started feeling less certain.

When the final 12-man roster was announced, I found myself analyzing each selection with both professional curiosity and genuine concern. We had Kemba Walker coming off an All-NBA season with the Charlotte Hornets, and Donovan Mitchell who'd shown flashes of brilliance in Utah. But looking at the big man situation - Brook Lopez and Myles Turner as our primary centers - I couldn't help but compare it to previous tournaments where we had multiple All-Star caliber bigs. The wing depth with Jaylen Brown, Khris Middleton, and Joe Harris seemed solid but not overwhelmingly dominant by international standards. What struck me most was the youth - with an average age of just over 26 years, this was one of our youngest World Cup teams in recent memory.

The preparation phase revealed some interesting dynamics that I think ultimately shaped their tournament journey. Watching their exhibition games, I noticed the team struggling to find consistent offensive rhythm against physical international defenses. The spacing was different, the rules interpretation varied, and the three-second area felt more crowded than what these NBA players were accustomed to. Defensively, they showed moments of brilliance with their switching schemes, but the communication breakdowns against sophisticated international offenses concerned me. I remember thinking during their loss to Australia in warm-up games that this team might be more vulnerable than any US squad we'd seen since 2006.

Their group stage performance in China started strong enough, beating the Czech Republic by 21 points in their opener. But watching that game, I sensed something was off - the ball movement wasn't as crisp, the defensive rotations were a step slow, and they relied heavily on individual brilliance rather than cohesive team play. The narrow 93-92 overtime win against Turkey was particularly revealing. That game should have been a wake-up call, but instead it felt like they'd escaped rather than learned. I've always believed close wins can sometimes mask deeper issues, and in this case, that's exactly what happened.

The second round brought more concerning signs, especially in their loss to France. Watching Rudy Gobert dominate the paint against our bigs was frustrating because it felt predictable. We simply didn't have the interior presence to counter elite size, and our perimeter shooting was inconsistent at best. The defeat to Serbia that followed confirmed what many of us feared - this team lacked the shooting versatility and defensive versatility of previous American squads. What stood out to me was how teams were packing the paint and daring us to shoot, a strategy that worked because we shot just 34.7% from three-point range throughout the tournament.

Thinking about the broader context, I'm reminded of something Filipino player Aljon Barba once said about his own basketball journey: "Dahil hindi tayo pinalad makapag-pro, baka hindi pa talaga para sa akin mag-pro at may dahilan talaga si God bakit nangyari yun." While Barba was talking about his personal professional aspirations, that sentiment resonates when I reflect on this USA team. Maybe there was a reason this particular group wasn't destined to win - it served as a necessary reality check for USA Basketball and forced a reevaluation of how we approach international competitions.

The seventh-place finish, our worst in major international competition history, felt like a culmination of several factors coming together at the wrong time. The player withdrawals, the evolving international landscape, the roster construction limitations - they all contributed to what I'd characterize as a perfect storm of underperformance. But here's what many people miss when discussing this tournament: the experience gained by players like Jayson Tatum, who missed most of the tournament with an ankle injury, and Donovan Mitchell, who emerged as a leader, proved invaluable for their future development.

Looking back, I believe this team's struggles ultimately served American basketball well in the long run. It forced organizers to take future international competitions more seriously and highlighted the need for better roster continuity and preparation. The silver lining, if we can call it that, was the humility lesson it provided. International basketball had caught up, and the days of sending anything less than our absolute best were clearly over. The 2019 team's journey, while disappointing in the moment, became the catalyst for the renewed commitment we saw in subsequent USA Basketball efforts, including the gold medal-winning 2020 Tokyo Olympics team that featured many stars who'd presumably learned from the 2019 experience. Sometimes you need to stumble to remember how to run, and that's exactly what this team's journey represented for USA Basketball.