Team USA's performance at the 2023 FIBA World Cup caused a bit of a hullabaloo. Failing to make the gold medal clash was already a disaster in and of itself, but failing to place at the podium after suffering an overtime defeat to Canada? Now that is a catastrophic result. Wholesale changes appear to be on the docket for Team USA as a consequence, with LeBron James reportedly planning to bring in a star-studded cast including Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry to avenge their national team's disappointing World Cup finish.
However, a Team USA veteran suggested a different route altogether in terms of how the higher-ups build their roster for the upcoming Olympic games. Rudy Gay, the veteran forward who has played 17 years in the NBA and a part of the Team USA roster that won the gold during the 2010 FIBA World championship, suggested that the team management hold tryouts to determine who will give it their all for the badge, and in the process, gauge how well the pieces fit together instead of cobbling together a team of stars then figuring the rest out later on.
“Team USA really has to go back to tryouts,” Gay wrote on his official Twitter (X) account.
The former Team USA forward then asserted that the problem with the team isn't the coaching or the roster construction in particular. Rudy Gay alluded to the fact that other countries have players who will die for their national teams, giving them the mental edge in the international stage.
“Nothing to do with coaching or whether it’s a B or C team. These other countries have players that would die to be there, we have players that where chosen,” Gay added.
Of course, talent is the number one factor that sets basketball squads from one another, and Team USA, more often than not, compensates for their relative lack of national team pride and relative lack of continuity compared to other teams with talent. Given how jampacked the NBA schedule is, holding tryouts doesn't seem too plausible. But Rudy Gay may be onto something anyway with his ideas.
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