The jerseys say USA, but that is about all that will be recognizable when the US men’s basketball team return to action later this month.
Fans might be left wondering: “The red, white and who?”
A whole new basketball world is emerging for the team, one in which not only are the best US players are not available, but neither are any in the NBA.
Photo: AFP
LeBron James, Kevin Durant and the stars might show up in a few years for the Basketball World Cup and Olympics, but only if a group of minor leaguers gets them there.
It is all part of the International Basketball Federation’s (FIBA) new qualifying format and the road starts at the AmeriCup.
It is a tournament the US do not need to win — and are not sure they can — but one they have to play to make themselves eligible for the bigger events.
“It’s going to be really interesting,” USA Basketball men’s national team director Sean Ford said. “We don’t know. We’re flying blind a little bit.”
Even the team’s best-known commodity is a bit of an unknown now.
Jeff van Gundy coached in the NBA Finals and is an analyst for them every year on ABC television, but he is leading the US team as an international basketball rookie. He is busy brushing up on the nuances of a game that can be played and officiated completely differently than in the US.
He was to begin yesterday in Houston at a training camp, where he was seeking the 12 players to travel to Uruguay and possibly Argentina for the AmeriCup and the potentially better-prepared opponents who wait.
“What we have to do is match and exceed their passion, how hard we play, how together we are as a group, because when the US has not succeeded in international competitions, it’s because there wasn’t as much maybe sacrifice as you need, or maybe you were deficient in one skill that was important,” Van Gundy said.
It is the US’ first appearance in the former FIBA Americas tournament since 2007. Their starting lineup in that romp to gold — James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Jason Kidd and Dwight Howard — was one of the strongest the US have ever assembled.
The 17 players in camp with Van Gundy include Kendall Marshall, Reggie Williams, Darius Morris and Marshall Plumlee, players good enough to play in the NBA, but not stick.
The team have not needed to play in their zone championship because they have won every Olympic and world title, exempting them from qualifying.
However, FIBA has revamped its qualification system to look more like soccer’s, where national teams play home-and-away games against teams in their pool.
Some of the windows are during the NBA season and players under NBA contract will not be permitted to play.
So the US plan to primarily use players from the NBA G League, with perhaps some who have been playing overseas.
“Look, no one’s going to feel sorry for us, but we know that this is different and we’re going to have to figure out how to be successful in a different model,” Ford said. “There’s always unknowns, but there’s probably more unknowns because No. 1, we don’t know how good we need to be. We don’t know how good we can be.”
Ford considers the prospective players a notch below the NBA, calling them “survivors, grinders, competitors.”
That is far from the level of the players who suited up for Mike Krzyzewski for a decade or would play for Gregg Popovich in 2019 and 2020, but Van Gundy is eager to work with them in his first coaching assignment — not counting his daughter’s youth league — since he was fired by the Rockets in 2007.
“There’s very few LeBron James of the world — obviously one — or great players who have it easy. These guys’ careers have not been easy and so I really admire their persistence, their grit and their determination,” Van Gundy said.
With limited time and options, the US know the AmeriCup could be a challenge.
They will need to start winning come November, when they open in the first round against Puerto Rico, Mexico and Cuba.
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