USA Basketball has struggled to field players' interest for the upcoming FIBA 2019 World Cup in China, as several household names have now dropped out of consideration for the team's training camp sessions in August and the consequent exhibition games that will take place throughout the month. Team USA's managing director Jerry Colangelo, despite the onslaught of dropouts from the original 20-man invite list, would rather shift the attention to those who will attend, rather than the ones who won't.
“I would like to keep the focus on who is there, not on who’s not there,” Colangelo said in a telephone interview with Marc Stein of The New York Times this week.
It's now been five years since the last World Cup in 2014 due to a change in format by FIBA, and it has consequently been three years since the Americans have participated in a major world competition since winning gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
A new wave of players like James Harden, Bradley Beal, Damian Lillard, and Anthony Davis were expected to man the ranks, yet them, along with nine other household names have already withdrawn consideration to represent their country.
As Stein beautifully point out — the talent pool has greatly diminished over the course of the past two weeks:
“Of the 11 Americans who occupied the 15 slots on last season’s All-N.B.A. team, only one will be in Las Vegas: Boston’s Kemba Walker. Of the 20 Americans who earned All-Star status last season, only two are currently available to Popovich: Walker and Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton. That number stretches to three if Toronto’s Kyle Lowry, who recently underwent thumb surgery, can recover in time — but also only if Lowry resists joining the nine established players who have dropped out just since U.S.A.B. announced its preliminary 20-man roster on June 10.”
Yet Colangelo isn't one to fret, sure that there's enough talent to build a congruent roster that can compete at the world level. USA Basketball has named young talents like Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell and Kyle Kuzma to make the roster, names that are largely expected to make the cut into the 12-man roster.
“I think we’re going to be fine,” Colangelo said. “Don’t judge a book by its cover. Out of this — I don’t want to call it adversity — out of these circumstances comes opportunity for the young guys. Some young guys who I think are ready to bust out.”
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