Basketball, for decades, was known as purely an American sport. It does not have the global reach of soccer, the media attention of American football, or as rich a history in several continents as baseball. It was not until the mid to late 1990s that professional basketball became more prominent internationally with the rise of European basketball leagues, and European and African players getting drafted into the National Basketball Association (NBA) more commonly. The addition of the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies (now relocated to Memphis, Tennessee) expansion teams into the NBA, officially made the highest level of professional basketball international. Fast forward over twenty years and America’s lead over the world in basketball seems to be slipping swiftly.
In the past month, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Cup ended surprisingly in the nations of the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia that hosted. In a competition of 32 nations, the United States, France, and Canada were early heavy favorites, with all three having many NBA stars on their rosters. None of them even made the championship game. France, with three-time NBA All-Star Rudy Gobert, did not even make it out of the group stage, including an upset loss to Latvia, a team with only two NBA role players on the roster with other Latvian Euro league players.
Canada and the United States lost in the semi-finals, setting up a high-profile third-place match that went into overtime, which ended in a Canadian victory. Houston Rockets guard Dillon Brooks, who had gained high-profile notoriety and ridicule within the NBA fandom and community for his distracting antics, comments, and lackluster performances on the court, shocked the All-Star studded US team by scoring 39 points, with seven three-pointers in the win. Meanwhile, Germany beat Serbia in the finale to win the tournament, signifying North American dominance in basketball is slipping fast, if not already gone.
Although the competing teams outside of the United States ought to be acknowledged and celebrated properly, a big caveat for the world’s international basketball success is the amount of top NBA stars opting out of representing their countries. While there are plenty of international basketball superstars that did not participate in the FIBA tournament, like Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Cameroon’s Joel Embiid, and Serbia’s Nikola Jokic, the United States is missing out on several heavy hitters like Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and many others who could easily demote a lot of the players on the current roster.
Part of the reason many stars are not participating in international competitions like FIBA is health reasons, while another is that many athletes do not take FIBA very seriously. What athletes are known to take more seriously is the Summer Olympics. Although the FIBA World Cup results help determine what teams qualify for the Olympics, global stars usually hold out on participating until the gold medals come out every four years, like they did in 2021. Soon after the US lost to Germany in the semifinal and Canada in the third-place game, stars like LeBron James have hinted at and are rumored to seek to join the United States roster for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
With the US basketball organization preparing to load up for its Olympic run, what will the competition look like, and how much success can the American favorites be expected to have? There is no doubt that other national teams will still respect the potential additional talent on the American side. However, even with the tweaking of the lineup, will the United States still the favorite to begin with? And if not them, who will be moving forward? The one thing that can be certain is that basketball is absolutely a global sport, and its competition will only be getting better and better.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.