FIBA World Cup 2019

[Ronin]

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[JCSunsfan]

The Booker thing with this team has gotten out of hand. Bickley and Mirotta were speculating yesterday that Devin would not be invited to the Olympic team because he bailed on this team. Players did bail, it Book was not one of them.

Book never got an invite. JC contacted Books agent and was told that Book was nursing nagging injuries from the season, so an invitation was never extended.

 

[AzStevenCal]

The Booker thing with this team has gotten out of hand. Bickley and Mirotta were speculating yesterday that Devin would not be invited to the Olympic team because he bailed on this team. Players did bail, it Book was not one of them.

Book never got an invite. JC contacted Books agent and was told that Book was nursing nagging injuries from the season, so an invitation was never extended.

Yeah but there was never a doubt that other idiots would run with the Bill Simmons narrative. I'm not too concerned about it, as long as Jerry's comment wasn't about Devin - when he said (roughly) that the olympics will be more about who we want than who wants to play for us).

 

[Mainstreet]

Some more on Spain's 95-88 win over Australia.


Kellan Olson‏Verified account @KellanOlson

Spain advances to the final. Ricky Rubio finishes with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists, 4 steals and 4 turnovers on 6-for-19 shooting. Australia had a great gameplan for Rubio, forcing him to shoot, but Rubio's execution in 2OT was huge and won them the game.

3:30 AM - 13 Sep 2019

 

[Chaplin]

Some more on Spain's 95-88 win over Australia.


Kellan Olson‏Verified account @KellanOlson

Spain advances to the final. Ricky Rubio finishes with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists, 4 steals and 4 turnovers on 6-for-19 shooting. Australia had a great gameplan for Rubio, forcing him to shoot, but Rubio's execution in 2OT was huge and won them the game.

3:30 AM - 13 Sep 2019

Shooting's not too good, but man, that's a nice statline.

 

[Mainstreet]

Kobe Bryant thinks world has caught up in basketball and the U.S. is going to have to get used to losing in major events.

"It's not a matter of the rest of the world catching up to the U.S., it's that the rest of the world has been caught up for quite some time," Bryant said at the Wukesong Sports Center. "And it's to the point now where us in the U.S. are going to win some, we're going lose some. And that's just how it goes."

"You have to remember, on the Redeem Team we needed a hell of a fourth quarter to beat Spain. That was a hell of a team we had. We still needed a real late push to beat Spain in that gold-medal match. So I say that to say put the best players that you think are going to make the best U.S. team out on the floor, we are still going to have challenges. It's not going to be a cakewalk. The days of the '92 Barcelona Dream Team are gone. They're over, so it's going to be tough."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27606497/kobe-titles-no-longer-automatic-team-usa


I still don't think the U.S. sent their A team.... more like their C team if that.

 

[Mainstreet]

Shooting's not too good, but man, that's a nice statline.

I think the Suns would be quite happy with this type of performance from Rubio since they have more weapons.

 

[Mainstreet]

It's obvious other players in other countries feel more patriotic regarding their national teams. You see it in soccer. They play year around with all the different tournaments their club teams get involved with, and they really are pushing the boundaries on needing rest. However, they show up for their national teams tournaments. I remember guys on Man U missing games to play in their teams tournaments. Our players don't place the same priority to represent their country, as other countries do.

I think you are very close to right in your post.

This is from Marc Gasol:

"It's so worth it and not just because we're playing in the title game," Gasol said. "It's the responsibility of passing along the commitment and the loyalty to the team. Those values that we were taught so many years, now it is our turn to pass on the legacy to the next generation. That's not talent, that's just commitment."

"When you come to national team for 8-10 weeks in the summer, it's not very practical," Gasol said. "You don't get to work on your game, you don't get to recover, you don't get to work on your body like you would if you had 20 weeks off. You're committing a lot of time to your teammates and it's completely worth it."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27606020/m-gasol-verge-pairing-wcup-nba-titles

 

[Phrazbit]

It's obvious other players in other countries feel more patriotic regarding their national teams. You see it in soccer. They play year around with all the different tournaments their club teams get involved with, and they really are pushing the boundaries on needing rest. However, they show up for their national teams tournaments. I remember guys on Man U missing games to play in their teams tournaments. Our players don't place the same priority to represent their country, as other countries do.

It’s about the stage more than patriotism. In soccer the World Cup is the biggest stage for the sport and every one wants to be a part. But also in soccer Olympic competition is not a big deal at all and countries regularly lack their stars.

The fiba cup for basketball is something that hardly even gets reported in the US unless we crap the bed. The fans don’t care, I can’t blame the players for not caring.

 

[Hoop Head]

They should incentive the world cup and olympics for the players. It wouldn't be a lot but allow a world cup or olympic selection count as an All-Star appearance towards a player earning a supermax. If they did that then I could see a lot more high level players going. It's not giving up all that much either, it's only the opportunity for the supermax and not giving it to them outright. They still need to hit a few other marks to qualify for it.

They don't have the money to pay them to go compared to their NBA salaries so they need to do something creative. That was the only thing I could think of that might entice some players and to keep the NBA game from suffering somehow, like how MLB gaveaway home field advantage in the World Series. They may need to do the same for foreign born players and that might upset some guys because most other countries only have a handful of NBA players and the US has a pool of 300 or so to choose from.

 

[Chaplin]

Ha! I just noticed that Luc Longley is an assistant coach of the Australian national team.

 

[Milgod]

It's obvious other players in other countries feel more patriotic regarding their national teams. You see it in soccer. They play year around with all the different tournaments their club teams get involved with, and they really are pushing the boundaries on needing rest. However, they show up for their national teams tournaments. I remember guys on Man U missing games to play in their teams tournaments. Our players don't place the same priority to represent their country, as other countries do.

Tbf, no top soccer players are going to miss games for their teams unless it's for a major tournament.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Tbf, no top soccer players are going to miss games for their teams unless it's for a major tournament.

It's all tied to success. The USA has completely dominated international competitions since 1992 (for the most part) and because of that a lot of players will see anything other than the Olympics as not very important. NBA players for other countries also likely feel more obligation because their countries can't compete without them. I suppose we will see how important American players see it next year when it's the Olympics and we are coming off international disappointment this year.

 

[Mainstreet]

Team USA finishes 7th at the World Cup with an 87-74 win over Poland and Popovich fires back at critics.

"Some people want to play the blame game. There's no blame to be placed anywhere," Popovich said. "They want to play the shame game, like we should be ashamed because we didn't win a gold medal? That's a ridiculous attitude. It's immature, it's arrogant, and it shows that whoever thinks that doesn't respect all the other teams in the world and doesn't respect that these guys did the best they could."

Team USA played with just nine players in the 87-74 win after Kemba Walker missed the game with a neck injury. Walker said he thinks he will be ready for Boston Celtics training camp at the end of the month. His Celtics teammates Jayson Tatum (ankle) and Marcus Smart (leg injuries) also did not play. Tatum missed six of the eight games in the tournament, Smart missed three.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/basketball/story/_/id/27611517/pop-team-usa-critics-immature-arrogant

 

[Mainstreet]

I can't help but wonder if all four of the Celtics players (Walker, Smart, Brown and Tatum) will play in the 2020 Olympics with three of them missing time in the World Cup due to injury.

As noted above, Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum all missed the game against Poland.

 

[Chaplin]

I can't help but wonder if all four of the Celtics players (Walker, Smart, Brown and Tatum) will play in the 2020 Olympics with three of them missing time in the World Cup due to injury.

As noted above, Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum all missed the game against Poland.

20-to-1 that if this was the gold medal game all 3 would have played.

 

[Mainstreet]

20-to-1 that if this was the gold medal game all 3 would have played.

Perhaps they might have if it was the gold medal game but it speaks to the risk of one team having invested four players in one major event outside the NBA.

It's hard to see it happening again... four players from one NBA team playing in the 2020 Olympics. I suspect teams will want to spread the risk around.

 

[Magnus]

Ricky Rubio is named MVP of the FIBA 2019 World Cup.

 

[Mainstreet]

Awesome Rubio winning MVP.

I hope Baynes will be all right.


Brian Windhorst‏Verified account @WindhorstESPN

Of note for Phoenix Suns fans: 1. Ricky Rubio won World Cup MVP after a 20-point title game for Spain and is enjoying the greatest moment of his career at moment. 2. Aron Baynes suffered a strained groin playing for Australia. Training camp starts in 2 weeks.


8:15 AM - 15 Sep 2019

 

[Mainstreet]

Spain beats Argentina in the Finals for the Gold.

Here is the boxscore.

http://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2019/game/1509/Argentina-Spain#tab=boxscore

 

[Mainstreet]

Here is the interview with Rubio after the win and the accompanying article at ESPN.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27620039/rubio-gasol-lead-spain-2nd-world-cup-title

 

[Milgod]

It's all tied to success. The USA has completely dominated international competitions since 1992 (for the most part) and because of that a lot of players will see anything other than the Olympics as not very important. NBA players for other countries also likely feel more obligation because their countries can't compete without them. I suppose we will see how important American players see it next year when it's the Olympics and we are coming off international disappointment this year.

Seeing that the Olympics are seen as much more important anyway, I imagine that welwe see a stronger team.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Seeing that the Olympics are seen as much more important anyway, I imagine that welwe see a stronger team.

The only place where the Olympics are seen as more important is in the US. Worldwide, the World Cup is a bigger deal.

 

[Milgod]

The only place where the Olympics are seen as more important is in the US. Worldwide, the World Cup is a bigger deal.

That's neither here nor there though (even though I disagree). The fact is that in the US, the Olympics are it. The WC isn't.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Here is the interview with Rubio after the win and the accompanying article at ESPN.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27620039/rubio-gasol-lead-spain-2nd-world-cup-title

Rubio seems to have evolved in this competition. I wonder if signing with Phoenix also helped that. He knows he is going to be the ball-handler in Phoenix. He knows he will have his own team. He must be salivating over the thought of being able to throw the ball to Book, Ayton, Oubre, Mikal, and even Baynes.

 

[JCSunsfan]

That's neither here nor there though (even though I disagree). The fact is that in the US, the Olympics are it. The WC isn't.

I was not necessarily disagreeing with you, just making an observation. Yes. The Olympics are more important to Americans and American players, so the pool of players will be better. But teams around the world do not consider the Olympics as big a deal as the World Cup.