Erik Spoelstra needs to make Team USA shine again at the World Cup

In basketball, the USA is the king of Olympus, but not of the world. The Americans have thus participated in the Olympics 20 times – with only one absence: the 1980 boycott – and have won the competition 17 times, including the last five in a row. For the World Championship, the ratio is almost reversed: 19 participations and only 5 gold medals.

First of all, in the last two competitions, Team USA returned without a medal around their neck. In 2019 it was a disaster with seventh place, when in 2023 it was a little better but not enough with a loss in the match for third place.

The next deadline is in 2027, in Qatar, and it will be the first competition for new coach Erik Spoelstra. “We weren’t good”, recognizes Grant Hill, head of USA Basketball. “We were together in 2023 with Spoelster, we lived through this experience. I know I will be better in terms of the team. I learned a lot from this experience.”

Counting on rising stars and the example of veterans

The former Detroit soccer player also reiterates that the world is getting stronger and stronger, so things are getting more complicated for Team USA. But the big challenge for Grant Hill is to put together a team capable of winning the competition while the World Cup is less prestigious than the Olympics. This has always been the case, but the calendar change, from 2019, with the organization set up a year before the Olympics, rather than two, does not help matters.

The best American players are therefore hardly motivated to dedicate two summers in a row to the national team, so the World Cup is sacrificed.

“We have time to study, to observe what happened in the last two competitions”the coach of Miami announces. “We have time and the good thing is we will see who will come out”adds Grant Hill. “We have two years and every season players pass a milestone, improve, get better, All-Stars and whose game translates to the FIBA ​​game.”

How do we convince stars like Jaylen Branson or Donovan Mitchell, for example, who have already experienced the World Cup but not the Games, to return in two years?

“It’s a culture of service, with the best Americans raising their hands and volunteering to play, to represent their country.”assures Erik Spoelstra. “There’s a culture of competition, accepting challenges, not shying away from expectations. The expectations, when you wear a Team USA jersey, are huge. We’ve had crazy success over the years and we want everyone to embrace that.”