U.S. ready to go from air to court
After a month of practice and years of planning, the U.S. men’s basketball team has arrived at the World Cup.
An all-night flight from Sydney to Shanghai that landed early Thursday brought the two-time defending World Cup champion Americans to China’s most-populous city, where they’ll play three first-round games starting Sunday. It took more than 10 hours of flying time, then another two-plus hours for the team to clear customs and finally reach its hotel.
From there, a few hours of relaxing awaited before an afternoon practice.
“The challenges begin,” U.S. coach Gregg Popovich said.
Players said finally getting to China brought a different feel.
“It’s kicked in,” U.S. guard Kemba Walker of the Boston Celtics said after practice. “The next game we play, it’s the real thing. We’re focused, we’re locked in and we’re ready to play.”
It’s not like there hasn’t been challenges already. Just consider the travel itineraries for the U.S. to this point.
The flights from Los Angeles to Melbourne, then Melbourne to Sydney and now Sydney to Shanghai add up to nearly 30 hours and 14,000 miles in the air.
If the U.S. makes the medal round, there’ll be about another 2,500 miles of travel within China. Add the return flight to the U.S. after the tournament, and the trip’s total will easily exceed 22,000 miles — more than half a regular season’s worth of travel for most NBA teams.
All that flying comes in the span of basically a month.
The Americans went 3-1 on their pre-world Cup tour, beating Spain in Anaheim, Calif., then splitting two games against Australia in Melbourne — the loss snapping a 78-game winning streak for the senior national team against major competition, dating back to 2006 — before topping Canada in the final tune-up.
Up next on Sunday is the Czech Republic, an opponent that caught Popovich’s eye for the way it battled Lithuania in a pre-world Cup friendly.
And now, with the trip to the other side of the world finally complete, the games now count.
“That’s the way it is,” Popovich said.