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Team USA loses players for its 2019 FIBA World Cup team at an alarming rate.
The international tournament, which helps determine the qualification for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, will take place from August 31 to September 15.
It's not uncommon for some of the best players in the NBA to skip the competition, but this year, more and more players are giving up, leaving the team looking for substitutes, many of whom will not be of the All-Star caliber. usual.
James Harden, Anthony Davis, Bradley Beal, McCollum, Tobias Harris, Eric Gordon and Zion Williamson all left the tournament. Damian Lillard, Kemba Walker, Kyle Lowry and Khris Middleton are the only players in the lineup to have formed a all-star team last season.
Lowry has undergone a thumb operation this season and although he hopes to stay in the tournament, it is possible that he is also forced to miss it.
Here is the current list, which will have new additions because of dropouts:
- guards: Lillard, Walker, Lowry and Donovan Mitchell
- wings: Jayson Tatum, Middleton, Harrison Barnes, P.J. Tucker
- Bigs: Kevin Love, Andre Drummond, Myles Turner, Kyle Kuzma, Paul Millsap, Brook Lopez
Joe Vardon, of Athletic, said candidates Angelo Russell, Mike Conley, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Thaddeus Young and Julius Randle could be replaced.
No other country will feel bad for the first American coach, Gregg Popovich, who succeeds Mike Krzyzewski as head coach. The United States still has the best group and has advantages over some of the best countries.
FIBA has changed its calendar in recent years. Two-thirds of the World Cup qualifiers take place during the NBA season. Unlike football with FIFA, national team players are not exempt from their professional teams to participate in international tournaments.
While the United States qualified for the World Cup with a team led by non-NBA players, countries like Slovenia, winner of the EuroBasket 2017, had no chance of winning. stars in Luka Doncic and Goran Dragic for the World Cup qualifiers. As a result, they have not qualified for the World Cup and will have to qualify for the Olympics through four joker tournaments in 2020.
According to the FIBA website, seven World Cup teams qualify directly for the Olympic Games. It is unlikely that the United States will not qualify for Tokyo.
However, it should be questioned about the future of NBA players' involvement in the World Cup, with the abandonment of the largest number of top players. As Marc Stein of the New York Times noted in December, the new organization of FIBA basically means that there are two US teams: the qualified team without stars of the NBA and the Team composed of NBA stars who will participate in the World Cup.
If star players continue to give up (or miss the tournament), the arguments inviting amateur players to play in the tournaments will intensify. It is also possible that in the long run, the United States will face real challenges at the World Cup as other countries improve.
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