Re: Kobe Bryant: World Basketball Has Already Caught Up To The U.S.

Post #1 » by **RealGM Wiretap** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 5:01 am

Kobe Bryant addressed Team USA's struggles in the FIBA World Cup, saying that the rest of the world has been as good as the U.S. for some time.

Team USA finished seventh, their worst showing in a major tournament since NBA players were allowed to participate in 1992.

"It's not a matter of the rest of the world catching up to the U.S., it's that the rest of the world has been caught up for quite some time. And it's to the point now where us in the U.S. are going to win some, we're going lose some. And that's just how it goes," said Bryant.

Bryant added that Team USA already had several close calls even at full strength.

"You have to remember, on the Redeem Team we needed a hell of a fourth quarter to beat Spain. That was a hell of a team we had. We still needed a real late push to beat Spain in that gold-medal match. So I say that to say, put the best players that you think are going to make the best U.S. team out on the floor, we are still going to have challenges," added Bryant.

Via Brian Windhorst/ESPN

Nikola · Post #2 » by **Nikola** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 10:55 am

James/Griffin
Leonard/George
Davis/Horford
Harden/Beal
Curry/Lillard

Disagree with Bryant here. It's still not close. If the best players played US takes gold rather easily. Spain played their absolute best game, and USA their worst, USA still one. But the fact that its one game per round sure an anomaly can happen.

Tiny ball · Post #3 » by **Tiny ball** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 1:57 pm

Nikola wrote:James/Griffin
Leonard/George
Davis/Horford
Harden/Beal
Curry/Lillard

Disagree with Bryant here. It's still not close. If the best players played US takes gold rather easily. Spain played their absolute best game, and USA their worst, USA still one. But the fact that its one game per round sure an anomaly can happen.

I don't think Horford is from the USA.

LAKESHOW · Post #4 » by **LAKESHOW** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 3:32 pm

This is why the man is the greatest. Give this man a team, he wont run it into the ground.

Vegeta10176 · Post #5 » by **Vegeta10176** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 3:38 pm

Nikola wrote:James/Griffin
Leonard/George
Davis/Horford
Harden/Beal
Curry/Lillard

Disagree with Bryant here. It's still not close. If the best players played US takes gold rather easily. Spain played their absolute best game, and USA their worst, USA still one. But the fact that its one game per round sure an anomaly can happen.

If US brings there best team they are heavy favourites but are not a lock and will not always win I think is the point.. I also think other teams gel together better and the rule difference have an affect also.. Finishing 7th with a team full of NBA players is a pretty poor result.. Given that the best players in the world all apparently play in the NBA..

LLJ · Post #6 » by **LLJ** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 3:39 pm

Nikola wrote:James/Griffin
Leonard/George
Davis/Horford
Harden/Beal
Curry/Lillard

Disagree with Bryant here. It's still not close. If the best players played US takes gold rather easily. Spain played their absolute best game, and USA their worst, USA still one. But the fact that its one game per round sure an anomaly can happen.

Yeah that's the thing though. It was still a game that could go either way. 20-30 years ago Team USA with NBA players would win every game by 30 or 40. Nowadays they may have nailbiters with teams like Spain and Lithuania or Argentina. So he's right, they've closed the game enough to win a do or die game.

Now, in a 7 game series, Team USA may win 99% of the time. But in world basketball, a bad game can happen way more often now.

LAKESHOW · Post #7 » by **LAKESHOW** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 3:42 pm

Well 1 things for sure, a US team with 4 celtics is a guaranteed 7th place finish

Pickled Prunes · Post #8 » by **Pickled Prunes** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 7:27 pm

LAKESHOW wrote:Well 1 things for sure, a US team with 4 celtics is a guaranteed 7th place finish

Or to rephrase, as long as Lakers players are too busy making kids movies and trademarking phrases like "taco Tuesday"........

I'm not a BOS fan... but I appreciate them taking the time to show up!

bb22 · Post #9 » by **bb22** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 7:41 pm

Load of B.S.
Ya the US is gonna lose some games. That is by no measure equal to the world catching up to the US. The talent gap in terms of individual players is still incomparable. If the US consistently sent out their best 12 players, with a core that doesn’t really change much (just like all other countries) they would win 99 games out of 100 games, and probably 100% of knockout games. You’d have guys like Lebron, KD, Curry, Harden with years of FIBA experience and playing together. Game over every time.

MagicFan101 · Post #10 » by **MagicFan101** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 8:18 pm

This is THE event of a lifetime for most world basketball programs.

This is an inconvenience for most US players.

If the best of the US treated the event the way the rest of the world does the average margin of victory would be no less than 30 ppg.

Kobe was an amazing player. No one can argue against that. But that time is up and this man is a fool. Stop letting him talk.

valrond1 · Post #11 » by **valrond1** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 10:43 pm

Nikola wrote:James/Griffin
Leonard/George
Davis/Horford
Harden/Beal
Curry/Lillard

Disagree with Bryant here. It's still not close. If the best players played US takes gold rather easily. Spain played their absolute best game, and USA their worst, USA still one. But the fact that its one game per round sure an anomaly can happen.

Dude, you just can't disagree with Bryant. He HAS DONE IT. He was part of the redeem team, he had to EARN their gold medals. They started a program after the 2002-2004-2006 debacle. Remember those 2004-2006 teams with Lebron, Wade, Iverson, Duncan, Anthony etc. They didn't win. 2006 was closer, but 2004 lost THREE games, and 2002 finished 6th.

Kobe and others went, took it seriously, trained hard, made a few years commitment, and it still wasn't a walk in the park. There were 3 walks in the park: 92, 94 and 96. But now they had won like 58 straight games, USA got cocky again (just look at the comments here) and sent a bunch of 2nd and 3rd string players. Many of them teammates so it was easier to make a team, but still, they failed miserably and it was the biggest fail in USA basketball history. Oh, and Pops and Kerr are fine for NBA and all star games, but for FIBA, they don't have a **** clue.

Post #12 » by **dougthonus** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 11:13 pm

They had won 58 in a row prior to this tournament loss to France where they were missing probably their top 20 or more possible players. If an NBA team went 58-2, you'd be off to the greatest start in the history of the NBA and no one would say anyone else was at their level.

ShotCreator · Post #13 » by **ShotCreator** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 11:38 pm

LAKESHOW wrote:This is why the man is the greatest. Give this man a team, he wont run it into the ground.

The greatest at what? I have to say even Kobes commentary post-retirement is more flash than substance. His detail show stinks and he says a ton of basketball related things that are just drenched in recency bias. His thing about ballhandling 4s being most important in todays game is a clear example. And this.

tor1234567 · Post #14 » by **tor1234567** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:58 am

ShotCreator wrote:
LAKESHOW wrote:This is why the man is the greatest. Give this man a team, he wont run it into the ground.

The greatest at what? I have to say even Kobes commentary post-retirement is more flash than substance. His detail show stinks and he says a ton of basketball related things that are just drenched in recency bias. His thing about ballhandling 4s being most important in todays game is a clear example. And this.

Kobe is just desperate to stay relevant.

I am not an American, and I personally would love nothing more than to see total parity in basketball worldwide...

But I know that if these American NBA players actually cared about representing the US...they could probably field 7 or 8 teams that could compete for medals at the next Olympics and probably sweep the Gold, Silver and Bronze (if they were allowed to).

Nazrmohamed · Post #15 » by **Nazrmohamed** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:18 am

I think its his way of motivating stars to play next time around.

dice · Post #16 » by **dice** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:37 am

LAKESHOW wrote:This is why the man is the greatest

huh?

Give this man a team, he wont run it into the ground.

huh?

what in the world are you talking about?

dice · Post #17 » by **dice** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:38 am

MagicFan101 wrote:This is THE event of a lifetime for most world basketball programs.

This is an inconvenience for most US players.

If the best of the US treated the event the way the rest of the world does the average margin of victory would be no less than 30 ppg.

Kobe was an amazing player. No one can argue against that. But that time is up and this man is a fool. Stop letting him talk.

yeah, it's long past time that we got a break from kobe

dice · Post #18 » by **dice** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:46 am

valrond1 wrote:
Nikola wrote:James/Griffin
Leonard/George
Davis/Horford
Harden/Beal
Curry/Lillard

Disagree with Bryant here. It's still not close. If the best players played US takes gold rather easily. Spain played their absolute best game, and USA their worst, USA still one. But the fact that its one game per round sure an anomaly can happen.

Dude, you just can't disagree with Bryant. He HAS DONE IT. He was part of the redeem team, he had to EARN their gold medals. They started a program after the 2002-2004-2006 debacle. Remember those 2004-2006 teams with Lebron, Wade, Iverson, Duncan, Anthony etc. They didn't win. 2006 was closer, but 2004 lost THREE games, and 2002 finished 6th.

i'm not giving kobe a standing O for being on a gold medal winning USA basketball team. waaaaaay down the list of career achievements for any great nba player

USA got cocky again (just look at the comments here) and sent a bunch of 2nd and 3rd string players. Many of them teammates so it was easier to make a team, but still, they failed miserably and it was the biggest fail in USA basketball history

have you not been paying attention? nobody CHOSE to send 2nd and 3rd tier nba players. the first tier players didn't want to play for a FIBA world cup. by this point it bores them

Oh, and Pops and Kerr are fine for NBA and all star games, but for FIBA, they don't have a **** clue.

who should the coaches have been, genius? the USA doesn't HAVE a consistent national team. the ARE no pro coaches here (college or pro) with FIBA experience

please tell us what popovich and kerr did wrong with regard to coaching to FIBA rules

dice · Post #19 » by **dice** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 2:41 am

ShotCreator wrote:
LAKESHOW wrote:This is why the man is the greatest. Give this man a team, he wont run it into the ground.

The greatest at what? I have to say even Kobes commentary post-retirement is more flash than substance. His detail show stinks and he says a ton of basketball related things that are just drenched in recency bias. His thing about ballhandling 4s being most important in todays game is a clear example. And this.

most overrated player in league history. not a particularly inefficient scorer, terrible chucker with the game on the line, grossly overrated defender, rode shaq's coattails to 3 titles before running him out of town and had gasol as a 1B for a couple of more titles...dude was never a top 3 player at any point in his career. to wit, his value was at its highest from '03-'09 (age 24-30). here are the players w/ the highest combined regular season and playoff VORP over that period:

59.3 lebron (age 19-24!)
54.1 duncan (112 playoff games)
53.1 KG (50)

45.9 kobe (90)
41.2 dirk (79)
40.2 post-prime kidd (73)
37.3 marion (52)
36.9 late/post-prime big ben (120)
35.8 mcgrady (27)
35.8 wade (61)
34.0 manu (112)
32.6 kirilenko (39)

Wingy · Post #20 » by **Wingy** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 10:37 am

bb22 wrote:Load of B.S.
Ya the US is gonna lose some games. That is by no measure equal to the world catching up to the US. The talent gap in terms of individual players is still incomparable. If the US consistently sent out their best 12 players, with a core that doesn’t really change much (just like all other countries) they would win 99 games out of 100 games, and probably 100% of knockout games. You’d have guys like Lebron, KD, Curry, Harden with years of FIBA experience and playing together. Game over every time.

While true in a video game world, reality is that these guys won't play anymore unless they're secure in a long term deal, and/or it's the Olympics where they can boost their brand.

I'm not saying you're wrong on paper by any means. But if that talent hardly ever plays together, then it might as well be
a video game.

I wish they would due to patriotism, but I totally get it from their perspective and begrudge them protecting their careers.