Altered NBA And Olympics Schedule Should Finally Force ‘Dream Teams’ Into Extinction

In what has been a disaster of a year for the NBA and basketball in general abroad, the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to 2021 is another hard knock. Going back to last summer, USA Basketball suffered its worst tournament in 17 years at the 2019 World Cup in China with a seventh-place finish, the NBA was taken off state-owned airwaves after a tweet from Rockets GM Daryl Morey in support of Hong Kong protestors in October, and the tragic death of Kobe Bryant took one of the game’s greatest international ambassadors.

When Rudy Gobert’s positive test for coronavirus on March 11 forced the league to take the drastic step of suspending the season, it was just another in a series of bad turns for hoops. Team USA is girding for the consequences.

It was not going to be an easy task putting together a team for this year’s Olympics, not with some of the U.S.’s top international options either slated to go deep into the playoffs (LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George) or dealing with injuries (Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson). Pushing back the Olympics a full year could create a bigger problem—and possibly even sever the bond between the NBA and Team USA forever.  

No one knows when the start of the 2020-21 NBA season will be and how deep into the summer of 2021 the season might need to go. League executives say it is possible that the next NBA season could begin on Christmas Day and run a month later than usual. That would put the Finals in July, ending just about the time the Olympics begin—July 23, 2021. That makes it virtually impossible for any NBA player on a playoff team to participate in the Olympics.

“It’s a consideration,” one team executive said. “No NBA players at all. If you’re USA Basketball, you’re at the mercy of the NBA’s scheduling. The NBA is not going to factor in USA Basketball at all in any of this. For us, for the league—in the NBA, it is going to be about the NBA first and making sure all teams are profitable. Team USA stuff, that’s not high on the list here and that could change things going forward for both sides.”

The Qualifying Bunch to the Rescue?

Led by LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant, Team USA underwent a surge after the 2002 World Cup ended in disaster for the Americans. That surge may have run its course. It has, again, become difficult to persuade NBA stars to give their time and energy to Team USA.

It could be time to turn to the American qualifying team.

That’s the group of fringe NBA players and G-League stars who represented the U.S. in FIBA Americas matchups ahead of the World Cup, under the guidance of head coach Jeff Van Gundy. It was made up of a hodgepodge of 54 players playing 12 games over 16 months against other teams in FIBA’s Americas region. The team went 10-2, with losses to Argentina and Mexico, teams that it also beat during round-robin play.

The team’s most productive player was Reggie Hearn, who played in nine games, the most of any member of the roster, and scored 9.7 points on 48.8 percent shooting from the 3-point line. Travis Trice, formerly of Michigan State and now of the Italian League, averaged 12.0 points and 5.6 assists in the six games in which he appeared.

There were other familiar names making appearances over the length of the qualifying periods. Xavier Munford was one of the team’s best players in six appearances. NBA veteran Tyler Zeller played in two games. Former first-rounders Henry Ellenson and John Jenkins did, too. Derrick White, Alex Caruso and Damion Lee, all of whom are rotation players now, also played for the team before making an impact in the NBA.

That’s what Van Gundy hoped for with this group. “Those players, we’ve had a number who have improved their careers,” he told USA Today last year. “The one thing is, they get to frame that USA Basketball jersey. They got to know what it was like to put on the same jersey that Jordan and Durant and Curry and all the greats who have played have done, and now they did it. … This system provided them an opportunity to do something significant for their country and USA Basketball, and it’s deeply appreciated.”

So Long, Dream Teams

That’s probably what the 2021 Olympic team needs. A bunch comprised of Trice, Hearn, Munford, Ellenson, and friends is far from a Dream Team. But their presence would be deeply appreciated. That should count for something. Most of the invited Americans passed on playing for Team USA inthe 2019 World Cup. The Americans went through more than four dozen players before getting to their final 12.

One of the offshoots of the scramble that the coronavirus has forced could be the demise of USA Basketball Dream Teams, a concept that was already teetering following the World Cup. When the team that did go China for the tournament wrapped up in seventh, coach Gregg Popovich indicated that this was the new reality for USA Basketball.

“It’s not written in stone that the United States is supposed to walk to a championship,” Popovich said at the time. “That’s pretty old-school thinking. Even the teams that have won in the past had a lot of close calls against several teams. It’s never been a cake walk. It’s not like the Dream Team.”

Even before this NBA season suspension, Popovich was warning Team USA would be in for a struggle in the years ahead. That will continue to be the case. But it makes more sense to struggle with a group of ragtag, hungry, near-NBA players like the qualifying team than it does with alleged Dream Teams that stumble and bungle in big international tournaments.

The new realities of the post-coronavirus NBA schedule might force Dream Teams into extinction but in truth, they were already headed that way.



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