why do you think the rest of the world isn't getting better at basketball?

[jzek]

Let's be honest - this is our B team and yet they were able to beat teams by over 20 a game. After 2004, one would think the gap would be closer but it seems it is a lot wider today... almost similar to the gap when the original Dream Team played. So what happened? Why did the rest of the world stopped improving?

[mentallooser]

Developmental systems. Other countries can't compete with ours. We rank our kids from very very early childhood. They compete nationally at a very young age, and they compete at a high level almost immediately.

Big schools and the USA program identify them early on and they compete for national rankings.

No one else has anything like this in basketball at the level we do.

Same reason we aren't on a higher level in soccer. We don't have the sort of developmental systems that other nations have.

[Booz Vivic]

Rest of the world has football as first sport by far, USA has superbowl, baseball and basketball before football. Think that is the reason.

[Crimsonrain777]

yeah, what the other guys said. alot of the players that would of been fantastic at basketball are going into soccer(football) which is the primary sport for the rest of the world. the leftovers pickup basketball. which leads us to where we are at now. absolutely no competition on the international stage

[JohnFreeman]

Isn't a large percent of the world poverty stricken?

[jzek]

Rest of the world has football as first sport by far, USA has superbowl, baseball and basketball before football. Think that is the reason.

True, but even we are improving at soccer. We made the round of 16 this year when teams like Spain (the defending champs), Portugal, etc. couldn't even get out of pool play. We also have the most number of players this year playing in top-level leagues like the Premiere League, Bundesliga, etc. so even though soccer is like our 5th major sport, we're improving immensely.

Teams like Slovenia, Lithuania, etc... these teams have basketball as their top or top two sport but they aren't improving that much overall.

[Booz Vivic]

Isn't a large percent of the world poverty stricken?

Thats also a deal, why africa usually lags a little bit behind in football is jus bcuz they havent got money/coaching etc

In football some of them are similar to european countries, like ghana nigeria algeria etc

[andremiller07]

Natural talent/athletic ability is something you can't teach

[Crimsonrain777]

Isn't a large percent of the world poverty stricken?

yeah, this too. you can't really play basketball on any type of surface. dudes can't practice a crossover trying to bounce a ball on dirt

[Booz Vivic]

Usa sort of fluked out of the groups. Football u can win while being second best. Vs. Ghana they were sevond best but won, vs. Belgium they had howard playing a blinder. Without him they wouldd have lost BIG. They are getting better at football, yeah, but theyre peobably at the highest level they can realistically reach.

[wally_world]

It's because USA is essentially a continent going up against countries. A continent vs continent basketball tournament would be more interesting.

[yarrak]

Athleticism makes all the difference. All white USA team wouldn't be able to dominate like that at all. In fact, I doubt they would win against teams like Spain.

Natural athletic ability is something you can't teach.

[GOATbrook]

Teams like Slovenia, Lithuania, etc... these teams have basketball as their top or top two sport but they aren't improving that much overall.

You are out of your mind with this statement. Slovenia, country with 2 million population is TOP 8 NT in the world. Also football is waaay more popular in Slovenia. It's success what we did, if we had more luck and if Australia didn't lost on purpose we could be in for a medal. We did good job.

Generaly speaking, USA is way ahead because of developmental system like some poster said it.

[PAOK]

what about the size of the talent pool of basketball-first countries??

serbia has a population of 7 mil, lithuania 3mil, slovenia 2mil, greece 10mil...

even spain's 50 mil is a fraction of USA's 300 mil population...

now imagine a team that would include all the major balkan basketball nations (greece, serbia, montenegro, slovenia, croatia etc). I think that they would be able to compete against the US team

[Lebron23]

USA have the best basketball players in the world. But you have teams like the Philippines and Senegal making some huge improvements in the last few years.