The Capital

Team USA’s goal still gold for Paris

After failure at World Cup, focus shifts to Olympic roster

- By Tim Reynolds

MANILA, Philippine­s — It was a long flight for USA Basketball on Monday. Manila to Los Angeles, about 13 hours on a chartered jet that didn’t have the Wi-Fi that’s necessary to communicat­e with the outside world from 30,000 feet. No texting, no emails.

That’s unfortunat­e. Those were 13 hours where recruiting for Paris couldn’t happen.

The World Cup is over. The U.S. didn’t medal. The world proved again that the Americans, even with NBA players, are vulnerable on the internatio­nal stage. And now, every bit of USA Basketball’s focus shifts to the Paris Olympics — where the challenge will be even tougher than the World Cup, which again reminded the Americans how much the FIBA game has changed.

“The narrative about USA Basketball and FIBA, and do we need reminders, we’re past that,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “These teams are really good.”

Kerr will be at the Olympics next summer. His staff — Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue and Mark Few — are also committed to the Paris Games. USA Basketball’s team leadership, Grant Hill and Sean Ford, will spend the next few months trying to pick the right 12 players to accompany them to Paris.

The mission won’t change: Gold or else. Silver won’t be enough, bronze won’t be enough, a repeat of Manila’s fourth-place finish would be a disaster. The U.S. has gone to the Olympics in men’s basketball 19 times and has won 19 medals, the last four of them gold. On paper, it looks easy. It is not, not anymore.

“I don’t think as Americans and basketball players that we think that we can’t lose,” said USA Basketball legend Carmelo Anthony, who won four Olympic medals — three gold, one bronze — with the national team. “I think the fear of losing is what drives us and what keeps us going and wanting to win and feeling so bad after losses.”

Win or lose at this World Cup, the U.S. brain trust knew it was going to have some serious roster decisions to make over the coming weeks and months. Some players from this World Cup team will almost certainly be retained for Paris — Mikal Bridges, Tyrese Haliburton and Austin Reaves clearly showed they fit in the internatio­nal game, Josh Hart did everything the U.S. asked, and Jalen Brunson and Anthony Edwards are among those who will get strong looks.

And then it becomes a matter of how many NBA stars that didn’t play this summer will want to play next summer on the bigger Olympic stage and give up six or seven weeks like the World Cup players did this summer.

Stephen Curry has talked about it. Kevin Durant should have an Olympic spot for as long as he wants. If LeBron James wants to play, he’ll play. Bam Adebayo is planning to be in Paris after playing a significan­t role on the team that won in Tokyo two summers ago, Devin Booker and Jayson Tatum should be there as well, and Draymond Green wants to try to win more gold.

There will be no shortage of options because the Olympics are more appealing to most U.S. players than the World Cup is. More prestige, more attention, brighter lights, bigger stage.

“What we’ve tried to do is really learn what wins a FIBA game,” Kerr said. “We’ve really studied everything about FIBA and the history of United States basketball. When we’ve won, what has been the reason. When we’ve lost, what has been the reason.”

There is one big wild-card out there as well.

Joel Embiid.

The reigning NBA MVP is, in the internatio­nal sense, a free agent. If he decides to play, and there’s no reason to think otherwise, Embiid will be wearing red, white and blue next summer at the Paris Olympics. Those are the colors of the uniforms USA Basketball will be wearing. Those are also the colors of the uniforms France will be wearing.

Embiid is a true rarity: He was born in Cameroon, has French citizenshi­p and became a U.S. citizen last year. And he’s never played on a senior national team, so it’s his call.

 ?? YONG TECK LIM/GETTY ?? While Mikal Bridges, above, likely will be back, the U.S. roster for next summer’s Olympics in Paris may look a lot different than it did for the recent World Cup.
YONG TECK LIM/GETTY While Mikal Bridges, above, likely will be back, the U.S. roster for next summer’s Olympics in Paris may look a lot different than it did for the recent World Cup.

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