Looking Back and Forward at USA Men’s team for the ’27 World Cup

PHILADELPHIA – When hulking 7-1, 325-pound center Shaquille O’Neal played for the 1996 US men’s Olympic basketball team, the Americans won a second straight gold medal, using 10 future Hall of Fame players, including five from the Dream team– David Robinson, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippin, John Stockton– and first time internationals like Hakeem Olajuwon, Grant Hill, Reggie Miller and O’Neal– to impose their will on the rest of the world.

The US won all 8 games by an average of 31.8 points and defeating Yugoslavia, 95-69, in the gold medal game at Atlanta.

Times have changed.

Basketball is now a global game. The top four vote getters in the NBA MVP ballot — multiple winners guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Canada, and center Nikola Jovic of Serbia, 22-year-old 7-5 center Victor Wembanyana of France and guard Luka Doncic of Slovenia–were Canadian or European. And the Americans had some crisis moments in the medal games at the 2024 Summer games at Paris. In the semi-finals, Serbia, led by Jovic, led Team USA by 13 points heading into the fourth quarter before a heroic performance by stars LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry sparked a dramatic comeback and a 95-91 victory. Team USA needed a flurry of four threes from Curry in the fourth quarter to hold off host France, 98-87, in final.

James– who will be 43– and Curry and Durant, who will be in their late 30’s, are unlikely to participate in the 2028 games, leaving the Americans with a huge rebuild that has some concerned about the future. James and Curry, who will be 40, have already announced their retirement. Durant has expressed interest in playing for a fifth time, but he will be 39.

O’Neal, for one, is concerned enough to suggest the gap between the United States and the rest of the world have narrowed and has predicted the U.S. will not strike gold this upcoming Olympic cycle.

“Twenty years ago, the USA was light years ahead of other countries,” he told a Swiss media outlet. “But that has changed. Europe has caught up and is only slightly behind, but it will soon overtake the USA. I am sure that the USA will not win gold at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.’

I tend to agree with him.

Shaq’s prediction is predicated on an aging talent base on impact players, concerns older experienced centers like Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis, two of the three post players on the 2024 team, who will be 34 and 35 and have a history of health issues.

The United States still has the best depth in the world, and the games will be played on home soil.

But I’ve seen what happens when we send younger, inexperienced international teams to major competitions.

We all saw what happened in 2004 when the U.S. coach Larry Brown had to replace nine players from a team that dominated the 2003 Tournament of Americas in Puerto Rico after stars like Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Jason Kidd opted out and Kobe Bryant had no interest in playing.

Brown was forced to build around Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson on a dysfunctional team where chemistry became an issue after the team added four players who were 21 and young to flush out the roster. As it turned out Brown did not give NBA rookie phenoms James and Carmelo Anthony any meaningful playing time which created tension in the locker room and Team USA lost three games and was lucky to win a bronze medal.

Team USA scrambled to put together rosters for the World Cup in 2019 and 2023 and relied heavily on a group of younger NBA stars. Neither team medaled. Team USA coach Eric Spoelstra is faced with a similar situation this cycle.

Countries like France, Serbia, Canada, Australia and Germany have elite talent, experience and sophisticated coaching systems that punish defensive lapses. There are over 100 internationals dotting NBA rosters. Global teams are no longer intimated by the name on the front of Team USA jerseys.

That’s not to say the United States does not have certain advantages. Team USA still has the deeper talent pool than any team for the capable Spoelstra to choose from and the competition will be held in Los Angeles.

Spoelstra has an embarrassment of riches at guard.  Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota T-Wolves is the closest thing the U.S. has to a star. The other three guards will come from Tyrese Haliburton, Cade Cunningham, Kon Kneuppel, Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Maxey and Devin Booker. Jason Tatum and 19-year-old phenom Cooper Flagg should be shoo-ins at the wings along with the 6-10 Durant, if he is willing to go after a fifth gold medal, and Jalen Williams, as long as he resolves wrist issues that have affected his three- point shooting. Spoelstra will need versatility and a defensive stopper look for Scottie Barnes and Amen Thompson to get long looks.

The most critical choice will come at center. The most logical assumption is USA will select Embiid if he is healthy, 7-1  three-point shooter, rim protector Chet Holmgren and two-time Olympian Bam Adebayo.

It’s a good team, but hardly invincible like the first two Dream teams or the Redeem teams of 2008 and 2012.

This roster test for LA ’28 comes next August 27 through September 12 next year when the USA Men’s National Team competes at the FIBA World Cup in Qatar.