NBA Teams And NBA Era Team USA Have Lost 36 Times To International Teams

[LordCovington33]

I went to both semis today.

The first was okay and the win was expected imo. Serbia has a very strong unit and their interior defence troubled Canada throughout.

But the second match was incredible match to watch live. I lost my voice from all the screaming in the last 5 minutes. Germany is not my team, but the win felt deserved. They were the better team, not relying on flashy NBA iso-ball that doesn’t translate as well Fiba tournaments. Hats off to the American players who put their hand up to play for their country, but shame on the players who thought they were above playing for their country (the highest honor in sports).

[dhsilv2]

You're still making an assumption that there are any conditions where Americans are going to start caring about FIBA championships.

FIBA runs the Olympics basketball. The Olympics basketball is a FIBA tournament. So are you arguing that Americans don't care about the Olympics?

http://www.fiba.basketball/presentation

We organize and oversee international competitions including the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup and the Olympic Basketball Tournaments.

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Is it really that hard to get even the most basic of facts right before making arguments?

Another worthless semantic argument...

And speaking for myself, the Olympics means about as much to me as Summer League Basketball.

At least Summer League is played on a real basketball court lol.

[Mirotic12]

Except that that's not entirely true. Because every other country takes this so much more seriously. You have players on those teams that have been playing for their national teams for decades. So these players have far more chemistry than the US and Canada has. The US was one of, if not the youngest team in the tourney and one of the least experienced. Especially with playing with each other.

The reason for that is that older American players in the NBA don't go. Most players that are 30 don't go. Meanwhile, you have teams in other countries with players like Ingles, Vucevic, Valancuinas and others in their 30's playing for their teams. I don't think the US had one who was even 30. Maybe not even a 28 year old. Not 100% sure.

Not really. Those teams like 2000s to 2010s Spain, Brazil, and Argentina don't exist anymore. And those were always the only teams like that anyway. It's just US sports media spreading untrue myths. Even teams that have a lot of time together like France and Australia don't play together since they are 15, and all that nonsense US sports media claims.

Actually, most of the teams have no more than a month or two for these tournaments, and many of the teams are constantly changing rosters and coaches. European teams like Serbia and Greece for example, are going through changes all the time to their rosters, and Greece is changing coaches left and right.

These are just myths from US sports media, that all these other teams play together since they were kids, yes, that is how US sports media frames it. It's just nonsense.

[JonFromVA]

FIBA runs the Olympics basketball. The Olympics basketball is a FIBA tournament. So are you arguing that Americans don't care about the Olympics?

http://www.fiba.basketball/presentation

We organize and oversee international competitions including the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup and the Olympic Basketball Tournaments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it really that hard to get even the most basic of facts right before making arguments?

Another worthless semantic argument...

And speaking for myself, the Olympics means about as much to me as Summer League Basketball.

At least Summer League is played on a real basketball court lol.

Oh, that doesn't make any difference for me. I'm just a Cleveland Cavalier fan and my interest goes up or down based on how many Cavalier players are involved. It's really hard for me to cheer for the "enemy" ... aka a player from some other team.

Congrats to Deutschland, though. Regardless of how little I care, it's not easy to knock off Team USA regardless of who we send or how little time they've played together.

[dhsilv2]

Another worthless semantic argument...

And speaking for myself, the Olympics means about as much to me as Summer League Basketball.

At least Summer League is played on a real basketball court lol.

Oh, that doesn't make any difference for me. I'm just a Cleveland Cavalier fan and my interest goes up or down based on how many Cavalier players are involved. It's really hard for me to cheer for the "enemy" ... aka a player from some other team.

Congrats to Deutschland, though. Regardless of how little I care, it's not easy to knock off Team USA regardless of who we send or how little time they've played together.

Can't really comment on the difficulty of beating "team usa"....a "team" that had never played together before nor had to win a single game to play in this event. Which is again why FIBA is unwatchable.

[JonFromVA]

Except that that's not entirely true. Because every other country takes this so much more seriously. You have players on those teams that have been playing for their national teams for decades. So these players have far more chemistry than the US and Canada has. The US was one of, if not the youngest team in the tourney and one of the least experienced. Especially with playing with each other.

The reason for that is that older American players in the NBA don't go. Most players that are 30 don't go. Meanwhile, you have teams in other countries with players like Ingles, Vucevic, Valancuinas and others in their 30's playing for their teams. I don't think the US had one who was even 30. Maybe not even a 28 year old. Not 100% sure.

Not really. Those teams like 2000s to 2010s Spain, Brazil, and Argentina don't exist anymore. And those were always the only teams like that anyway. It's just US sports media spreading untrue myths. Even teams that have a lot of time together like France and Australia don't play together since they are 15, and all that nonsense US sports media claims.

Actually, most of the teams have no more than a month or two for these tournaments, and many of the teams are constantly changing rosters and coaches. European teams like Serbia and Greece for example, are going through changes all the time to their rosters, and Greece is changing coaches left and right.

These are just myths from US sports media, that all these other teams play together since they were kids, yes, that is how US sports media frames it. It's just nonsense.

I didn't realize Franz Wagner was part of the US sports media ..

"A lot of these guys have been playing together for a bunch of years now," offered the 22-year-old. "We have a couple of young guys like myself and a lot of experience at different positions and guys that have played together at the highest level for a long time.

[JonFromVA]

At least Summer League is played on a real basketball court lol.

Oh, that doesn't make any difference for me. I'm just a Cleveland Cavalier fan and my interest goes up or down based on how many Cavalier players are involved. It's really hard for me to cheer for the "enemy" ... aka a player from some other team.

Congrats to Deutschland, though. Regardless of how little I care, it's not easy to knock off Team USA regardless of who we send or how little time they've played together.

Can't really comment on the difficulty of beating "team usa"....a "team" that had never played together before nor had to win a single game to play in this event. Which is again why FIBA is unwatchable.

And yet the US team was still greatly favored to win the whole thing at -167, but that still means they were only being given a 37% chance of winning the tourney. Single elimination is brutal.

[dhsilv2]

Oh, that doesn't make any difference for me. I'm just a Cleveland Cavalier fan and my interest goes up or down based on how many Cavalier players are involved. It's really hard for me to cheer for the "enemy" ... aka a player from some other team.

Congrats to Deutschland, though. Regardless of how little I care, it's not easy to knock off Team USA regardless of who we send or how little time they've played together.

Can't really comment on the difficulty of beating "team usa"....a "team" that had never played together before nor had to win a single game to play in this event. Which is again why FIBA is unwatchable.

And yet the US team was still greatly favored to win the whole thing at -167, but that still means they were only being given a 37% chance of winning the tourney. Single elimination is brutal.

But there was a 0% change of the basketball being high quality which is really my point. These events just suck. it's sloppy bad ball. I don't get what people enjoy about it.

[JB2]

5 holdovers: JJJ, Haliburton, Bridges, Ant and Reaves.
Add: AD, Steph, LeBron, Tatum, Booker, KD, Zion

AD, JJJ, Zion
LeBron, Tatum
KD, Bridges
Book, Ant, Reaves
Curry, Haliburton

[JonFromVA]

Can't really comment on the difficulty of beating "team usa"....a "team" that had never played together before nor had to win a single game to play in this event. Which is again why FIBA is unwatchable.

And yet the US team was still greatly favored to win the whole thing at -167, but that still means they were only being given a 37% chance of winning the tourney. Single elimination is brutal.

But there was a 0% change of the basketball being high quality which is really my point. These events just suck. it's sloppy bad ball. I don't get what people enjoy about it.

Depends why they're watching, no?

If it's because they think they're seeing the best teams with the best players in the world going against each other to prove who's the best?

Well, nope it's not that.

However, if it's out of a sense of national pride, then none of that matters.

If it's because there are players on the team they like and have followed, then none of that matters.

If they were watching because they were hoping to see the US team get upset, then none of that matters.

Regardless, it doesn't hurt to be gracious, it comes easy when "your team" wins all the time.

[dhsilv2]

And yet the US team was still greatly favored to win the whole thing at -167, but that still means they were only being given a 37% chance of winning the tourney. Single elimination is brutal.

But there was a 0% change of the basketball being high quality which is really my point. These events just suck. it's sloppy bad ball. I don't get what people enjoy about it.

Depends why they're watching, no?

If it's because they think they're seeing the best teams with the best players in the world going against each other to prove who's the best?

Well, nope it's not that.

However, if it's out of a sense of national pride, then none of that matters.

If it's because there are players on the team they like and have followed, then none of that matters.

If they were watching because they were hoping to see the US team get upset, then none of that matters.

Regardless, it doesn't hurt to be gracious, it comes easy when "your team" wins all the time.

I can't watch a player I like in these games. I'm just thinking "please don't get hurt in a meaningless game" the whole time.

And if you wanted national pride, I'd want to see something like the best high school TEAM from each country or something play. That'd be cool. Not a team of the best high school kids, but the actual best high school team. Or something like that. No pro's and not a beat of team that didn't play together all year.

[dj20001]

After losing to Germany in the semifinals of the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Team USA senior men's teams (with 12 current NBA players on their rosters), have now lost 16 games in FIBA play since 2002.

Since 2002, USA teams consisting of rosters made up of 12 current NBA players, have played in 13 FIBA tournaments. So 16 losses so far in 13 tournaments. The tournaments listed in bold below, are the tournaments in which 12 man NBA teams have lost.

2002 FIBA World Cup (3 losses)
2003 FIBA AmeriCup
2004 Summer Olympic Games (3 losses during tournament, 4 losses including prep games)
2006 FIBA World Cup (1 loss)
2007 FIBA AmeriCup
2008 Summer Olympics
2010 FIBA World Cup
2012 Summer Olympic Games
2014 FIBA World Cup
2016 Summer Olympic Games
2019 FIBA World Cup (2 losses during tournament, 3 losses counting prep games)
2021 Summer Olympics (1 loss during tournament, 3 losses counting prep games)
2023 FIBA World Cup{/b} (2 losses)

[b]1. 2002 FIBA World Cup:
Argentina 87 - USA 80

2. 2002 FIBA World Cup:
FR Yugoslavia 81 - USA 78

3. 2002 FIBA World Cup:
Spain 81 - USA 75

USA finished in 6th place.

4. 2004 Summer Olympics preparation game:
Italy 95 - USA 78

5. 2004 Summer Olympics:
Puerto Rico 92 - USA 73

6. 2004 Summer Olympics:
Lithuania 94 - USA 90

7. 2004 Summer Olympics:
Argentina 89 - USA 81

USA finished in 3rd place.

8. 2006 FIBA World Cup:
Greece 101 - USA 95

USA finished in 3rd place.

9. 2019 FIBA World Cup preparation game:
Australia 98 - USA 94

10. 2019 FIBA World Cup:
France 89 - USA 79

11. 2019 FIBA World Cup:
Serbia 94 - USA 89

USA finished in 7th place.

12. 2021 Summer Olympics preparation game:
Nigeria 90 - USA 87

13. 2021 Summer Olympics preparation game:
Australia 91 - USA 83

14. 2021 Summer Olympics:
France 83 - USA 76

15. 2023 FIBA World Cup:
Lithuania 110 - USA 104

16. 2023 FIBA World Cup:
Germany 113 - USA 111


In the following losses, Team USA's opponents had zero NBA players on their roster.

2004 Summer Olympics preparatio1game:
Italy 95 - USA 78

2006 FIBA World Cup:
Greece 101 - USA 95

So twice (Italy 2004, Greece 2006), a team made up of 12 current NBA players lost to teams with zero NBA players on their roster, although one of those two losses (Italy 2004) was a prep game.

If we want to break it down to individual players doing the most damage to beat USA, we have: (official games are in bold)

2002 against Argentina - Manu Ginobili

2002 against FR Yugoslavia - Peja Stojakovic

2002 against Spain - Juan Carlos Navarro

2004 against Italy - Gianluca Basile

2004 against Puerto Rico - Carlos Arroyo

2004 against Lithuania - Sarunas Jasikevicius

2004 against Argentina - Manu Ginobili

2006 against Greece - Vassilis Spanoulis

2019 against Australia - Patty Mills

2019 against France - Rudy Gobert

2019 against Serbia - Bogdan Bogdanovic

2021 against Nigeria - Gabe Vincent

2021 against Australia - Patty Mills

2021 against France - Evan Fournier

2023 against Lithuania - Vaidas Kariniauskas

2023 against Germany - Andreas Obst

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USA 2002 FIBA World Cup Roster:

Elton Brand
Antonio Davis
Baron Davis
Michael Finley
Raef LaFrentz
Shawn Marion
Andre Miller
Reggie Miller
Jermaine O'Neal
Paul Pierce
Ben Wallace
Jay Williams

Head coach: George Karl
Lead Assistant coach: Gregg Popovich


USA 2004 Summer Olympics Roster:

Carmelo Anthony
Carlos Boozer
Tim Duncan
Allen Iverson
LeBron James
Richard Jefferson
Stephon Marbury
Shawn Marion
Lamar Odom
Emeka Okafor
Amare Stoudemire
Dwyane Wade

Head coach: Larry Brown
Lead Assistant coach: Gregg Popovich


USA 2006 FIBA World Cup Roster:

Carmelo Anthony
Shane Battier
Chris Bosh
Elton Brand
Kirk Hinrich
Dwight Howard
LeBron James
Antawn Jamison
Joe Johnson
Brad Miller
Chris Paul
Dwyane Wade

Head coach: Mike Krzyzewski
Lead Assistant coach: Jim Boeheim


USA 2019 FIBA World Cup Roster:

Derrick White
Donovan Mitchell
Joe Harris
Marcus Smart
Harrison Barnes
Jaylen Brown
Jayson Tatum
Mason Plumlee
Myles Turner
Brook Lopez
Khris Middleton
Kemba Walker

Head coach: Gregg Popovich
Lead Assistant coach: Steve Kerr


USA 2021 Summer Olympics Roster:

Keldon Johnson
Zach Lavine
Damian Lillard
Kevin Durant
Khris Middleton
Jerami Grant
Jayson Tatum
Javale McGee
Jrue Holiday
Bam Adebayo
Draymond Green
Devin Booker

Head coach: Gregg Popovich
Lead Assistant coach: Steve Kerr


USA 2023 FIBA World Cup Roster:

Tyrese Haliburton
Mikal Bridges
Cameron Johnson
Brandon Ingram
Paolo Banchero
Bobby Portis
Anthony Edwards
Jalen Brunson
Josh Hart
Jaren Jackson Jr.
Walker Kessler
Austin Reaves

Head coach: Steve Kerr
Lead Assistant coach: Erik Spoelstra

*Original post updated after the USA vs. Germany 2023 FIBA World Cup game.

Kobe and MJ were undefeated during their runs with team USA fwiw.

Y'all be easy

[Nuntius]

But there was a 0% change of the basketball being high quality which is really my point. These events just suck. it's sloppy bad ball. I don't get what people enjoy about it.

People are allowed to disagree with you, you know. Just because you don't like something, it doesn't mean that no one else will.

[Nuntius]

And if you wanted national pride, I'd want to see something like the best high school TEAM from each country or something play. That'd be cool. Not a team of the best high school kids, but the actual best high school team. Or something like that. No pro's and not a beat of team that didn't play together all year.

By the way, this paragraph once again reveals your US-centric viewpoint. Such a tournament with the best high school teams from each country couldn't really be organized simply because the majority of countries around the world do not have high school teams. The sport simply isn't organized in this "high school to college" fashion that is organized in the US. The US is one of the exceptions when it comes to this.

[dhsilv2]

And if you wanted national pride, I'd want to see something like the best high school TEAM from each country or something play. That'd be cool. Not a team of the best high school kids, but the actual best high school team. Or something like that. No pro's and not a beat of team that didn't play together all year.

By the way, this paragraph once again reveals your US-centric viewpoint. Such a tournament with the best high school teams from each country couldn't really be organized simply because the majority of countries around the world do not have high school teams. The sport simply isn't organized in this "high school to college" fashion that is organized in the US. The US is one of the exceptions when it comes to this.

I'm fully aware that not everyone does that, which is why I added or something like that. The point is, it isn't fun to see pros in these style events.

[Nuntius]

And if you wanted national pride, I'd want to see something like the best high school TEAM from each country or something play. That'd be cool. Not a team of the best high school kids, but the actual best high school team. Or something like that. No pro's and not a beat of team that didn't play together all year.

By the way, this paragraph once again reveals your US-centric viewpoint. Such a tournament with the best high school teams from each country couldn't really be organized simply because the majority of countries around the world do not have high school teams. The sport simply isn't organized in this "high school to college" fashion that is organized in the US. The US is one of the exceptions when it comes to this.

I'm fully aware that not everyone does that, which is why I added or something like that.

Fair enough, I guess.

The point is, it isn't fun to see pros in these style events.

Well, that's just your opinion, man. You're entitled to it but everyone else does not have to agree.

[dhsilv2]

By the way, this paragraph once again reveals your US-centric viewpoint. Such a tournament with the best high school teams from each country couldn't really be organized simply because the majority of countries around the world do not have high school teams. The sport simply isn't organized in this "high school to college" fashion that is organized in the US. The US is one of the exceptions when it comes to this.

I'm fully aware that not everyone does that, which is why I added or something like that.

Fair enough, I guess.

The point is, it isn't fun to see pros in these style events.

Well, that's just your opinion, man. You're entitled to it but everyone else does not have to agree.

Yes, that is an opinion. And seeing luka playing hurt (or just reading about it) makes me want to vomit!

[Lalouie]

i dont understand the topic

should the usa team throw in a ringer from cambodia

[LukaMagic]

Saying "this isn't 1992 anymore" has two points in it:
1. Yes, "the world" progressed a lot in terms of talent and overall bball knowledge, but:
2. it also means that USA talent regressed big time compared to the dream team, even if USA would send all of their best players today.

And that 2nd point should be concerning to americans.. It shows that development of young players (pre-pro career) and even nba player development is severely lacking. Why is that?

And please stop with the "we don't care about FIBA" - american talent in the NBA is arguably at an all time low, do you care about that?

[maradro]

Except that that's not entirely true. Because every other country takes this so much more seriously. You have players on those teams that have been playing for their national teams for decades. So these players have far more chemistry than the US and Canada has. The US was one of, if not the youngest team in the tourney and one of the least experienced. Especially with playing with each other.

The reason for that is that older American players in the NBA don't go. Most players that are 30 don't go. Meanwhile, you have teams in other countries with players like Ingles, Vucevic, Valancuinas and others in their 30's playing for their teams. I don't think the US had one who was even 30. Maybe not even a 28 year old. Not 100% sure.

Not really. Those teams like 2000s to 2010s Spain, Brazil, and Argentina don't exist anymore. And those were always the only teams like that anyway. It's just US sports media spreading untrue myths. Even teams that have a lot of time together like France and Australia don't play together since they are 15, and all that nonsense US sports media claims.

Actually, most of the teams have no more than a month or two for these tournaments, and many of the teams are constantly changing rosters and coaches. European teams like Serbia and Greece for example, are going through changes all the time to their rosters, and Greece is changing coaches left and right.

These are just myths from US sports media, that all these other teams play together since they were kids, yes, that is how US sports media frames it. It's just nonsense.

I didn't realize Franz Wagner was part of the US sports media ..

"A lot of these guys have been playing together for a bunch of years now," offered the 22-year-old. "We have a couple of young guys like myself and a lot of experience at different positions and guys that have played together at the highest level for a long time.

1) it's not a given that every non-US NT have played together their whole lives
2) if they have, that may be circumstantial (few options) or planned (a spurs like approach to team building vs a Cuban mavericks approach). Either way, no rule or opponent is impeding the US from doing the same, if they don't it's entirely on them