Fourteen NBA players have now withdrawn consideration from playing in the upcoming FIBA 2019 World Cup, a staple competition for USA Basketball and one of the most important events for Team USA. A roster list that once included 20 participants is now less than half of that, forcing managing director Jerry Colangelo to call up several other players, hoping to have a roster ready by the end of August.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst listed several reasons as to why players have passed on the opportunity to show their talents at the world level. Among them, the extra basketball that is being played is more than ever an inconvenience for players, especially given that we're in the midst of the era of load management. Another is how the new international basketball schedule means the World Cup and the Olympics will now be played in back-to-back summers, a proposition that isn't the most appetizing for stars who have busy offseasons.

Third, the NBA season is now starting earlier, in mid-October instead of late October or early November, while the World Cup is ending later than in years past, making the time restriction even more fragile.

Fourth, the NBA will send six teams to Asia in October for exhibition games to promote the sport, and that would have required a number of players, including James Harden (Houston Rockets) and Anthony Davis (Los Angeles Lakers), to make that trip across the world twice in a matter of weeks.

Neither the NBA, nor FIBA have made things easier for this process, but players have also not favored this event. Team USA has been known as a hub for alliances and the root of the start of some superteams. With at least a third of the NBA switching places, plenty of star-caliber players find themselves in new homes and having to readjust their family's life to a new place, along with the proposition to bond with new teammates.

Even players like Harden, who has been with his team for a while, is now forced to stay and work out his chemistry with another incoming star in Russell Westbrook — and the same can be said about many others invited.