The USA are going to playing off for 7th place at the FIBA World Cup taking place in China. The US had been beaten in the quarter-finals by France 89-79 and following that defeat the US lost to Serbia 97-89 to prole them down to the basement of world basketball.
Is it because of a lack of talent and quality coaching? Hardly, as the team is fully stacked. Maybe many of the players are not exactly household names, but you cannot question the Team USA pedigree, especially the coaching staff which includes Greg Popovich and Steve Kerr.
No, what happened is the rest of the world has caught up. They no longer fear the US, they see Team USA as beatable. Look at Turkey at this tournament, they lost by one point in overtime to the US, then lose to New Zealand and end up finishing in 21st place (or thereabouts). What I'm saying is that on the day any team can beat any other team and no outcomes are guaranteed. And as I write this the first quarter of the first semi-final has ended, Australia on 21, Spain on 20. Really close, the world of basketball just got intense.
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