2019 United States FIBA Basketball World Cup team

The United States men's national basketball team competed in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup and finished in seventh place. After winning the past two World Cups in 2010 and 2014,[1] they were seeking to become the first country to capture three straight gold medals.[2] With high-profile players electing not to participate,[3] Team USA was devoid of A-list players from the National Basketball Association (NBA).[4] They were also impacted throughout by injuries to players Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart.[5][6] The Americans lost to France in the quarterfinals, ending their 58-game winning streak in FIBA (International Basketball Federation) and Olympic competition. Normally played every four years, the tournament was moved from its expected 2018 playing to avoid conflicting with soccer's World Cup schedule.[7]

After rule changes by FIBA in 2015, the US no longer automatically qualified for the World Cup despite winning the Olympics in 2016. Changes in timing also resulted in the qualifying rounds overlapping with the NBA's season. Consequently, USA Basketball decided to deploy squads of players mostly from the NBA G League, the NBA's development league. Coached by Jeff Van Gundy, they qualified the US for the World Cup, where the Americans switched to a team of NBA players coached by Gregg Popovich. They finished the World Cup as one of the top two countries in the Americas, directly qualifying them for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

  1. ^ Golliver, Ben (July 26, 2018). "Building USA Basketball's Dream Team for the 2020 Olympics". SI.com.
  2. ^ "USA qualifies for FIBA World Cup". NBA.com. Associated Press. December 2, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
  3. ^ Stein, Marc (September 11, 2019). "France Upsets U.S. at Basketball World Cup". The New York Times. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference golliver_09032019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Horne, Erik (September 14, 2019). "FIBA World Cup: USA closes tournament with bounceback against Poland". The Oklahoman. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  6. ^ Pelton, Kevin (August 27, 2023). "How good would this Team USA roster be in the NBA?". ESPN. Retrieved September 1, 2023. Part of the reason the U.S. struggled in 2019 was losing Tatum -- already a key starter -- to an ankle sprain during a narrow win over Turkey early in the group stages. Then-Boston teammate Marcus Smart also missed the USA's last two losses due to hand soreness, compromising the roster's perimeter depth
  7. ^ Stein, Marc (August 2, 2019). "U.S.A. Basketball Asks for Focus to Be on Who Is Here, Not Who Isn't". The New York Times. Retrieved August 4, 2019.