With the Paris Olympics exhibition games starting Wednesday night, Team USA is a much different team than what it was during the FIBA World Cup back in 2023. So much so that there was an apparent “bully” problem against Team USA, especially when it came to players down in the paint and the front court, but now it has drastically changed with such players as Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid.
It would make sense how USA was bullied in their size as they were a small lineup with the starting center being Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. who stands at six foot, 10 inches and is usually a power forward. The coaches on the Olympics team even brought up to the players about the players being “bullied,” but the seven foot Embiid believes it will be a different story this time around according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic.
“Probably everybody knows it’s hard to bully me,” Embiid said. “And it’s hard to bully those other guys.”
Besides Embiid, more size was added with Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis who is much tougher at playing the center position where he even said that when it comes to the FIBA World Cup team, “they feel like we got bullied last year.”
Bam Adebayo talks about how Team USA will set the tone
Another addition to the Paris Olympics team on Team USA is Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo who does stand around six foot, 10 inches, but is one of the best defenders in the league as he was a finalist last season for the Defensive Player of the League. He was also on NBA's All-Defense first team and won the gold medal with USA in 2021 as with all the intensity added to Team USA, he believes they “will definitely set the tone early.”
“I feel like we will definitely set the tone early, no matter who is in the game,” Adebayo said. “I feel like the tone will be set from the start to the finish.”
Someone that Adebayo knows very well that is on the coaching staff for USA is Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra who talked about the areas of need that were addressed whether it be size or physicality. He would even say that on this current iteration, the squad this year has “Hall of Fame rebounders” on the roster in Embiid, Davis, and Adebayo.
“We feel like size, physicality, rebounding ability — we feel like we’ve addressed that,” Spoelstra said, who is an assistant under Team USA's head coach Steve Kerr. “These are Hall of Fame rebounders that we have on this roster.”
Team USA coach speaks on how basketball is played internationally
Another coach who was on Kerr's USA staff along with Spoelstra was Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue and also talked about how they weren't prepared for the size in the last go around. He would emphasize how internationally, the game is much different compared to the NBA via The Athletic.
“Over there (internationally) the game is different,” Lue said. “Here (in the NBA), you can’t really touch guys, can’t be physical. Over there (Team USA) found out that they can be physical, they can run guys over, use your hands. It was just a different game, and we weren’t prepared for it. And (so) we talked about it (Friday night).”
Adebayo hypes up Team USA heading into Paris Olympics
Size and physicality will especially be crucial when facing teams like France with Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert or even against Serbia who has superstar Nikola Jokic. Still, the current Team USA has an immense amount of hype, but the players realize that, especially Adebayo who said that people have compared them to the “Dream Team” who had such players as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and many more legends.
“Do you see this team?” Adebayo said. “I don’t disrespect any other country at all, so. So don’t let that be your headline. But, you know, you put a team together like this and you get compared to the Dream Team, it kind of puts it in perspective of how great this team can be. You put a team like this together, and we play the right way, it’s going to be hard to beat us.”
USA's first exhibition game will be against a formidable rival in Team Canada who beat them in the FIBA World Cup to get the bronze medal as they have Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Houston Rockets' Dillon Brooks. The latter would send a warning to Team USA despite their bolstered lineup meaning that despite the game being an exhibition, it should be an intense one that starts at 10:30 p.m. (EST).
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