Tiffany Zhu

For the U.S. men’s basketball team, a gold medal comes as the expected outcome. After six consecutive top prizes, any trouble at all on the path to gold appears a near-failure and a blemish on the legacy of all participating athletes.

Golden State Warriors point guard and American basketball star Stephen Curry pulls up from deep, sinking a ridiculous three-pointer over a double-team to seal the win. With his shot, the  U.S. men’s national basketball team beat France 98-87 to win the Olympic gold medal on Aug. 10. 

To earn the gold, the U.S. team beat South Sudan, Puerto Rico, Brazil and France once, and bested Serbia twice, a perfect record which would lead most to believe the roster of NBA superstars breezed through the tournament. Surprisingly, the team did not coast on such an easy road, most notably trailing by 17 points in the semifinal against Serbia before crawling back in the fourth quarter and winning by a narrow four points. 

For the U.S. men’s basketball team, a gold medal comes as the expected outcome. After six consecutive top prizes, any trouble at all on the path to gold appears a near-failure and a blemish on the legacy of all participating athletes. So why does that not hold true this year? The simple answer is that the rest of the world has caught up to American basketball, or, perhaps more clearly, age has caught up to the last dominant generation of American stars. 

While the U.S. team featured a group of stars from a wide age range, the roster’s focal points are close to finishing their careers. Curry turned 36 earlier this year, while king of longevity and Olympic tournament MVP LeBron James will reach 40 by the end of the year. Even Kevin Durant, the American team’s third option and a four-time Olympic participant, has reached 35. 

By contrast, Serbia’s Nikola Jokic, who has won three NBA MVPs for the Denver Nuggets, is 29, and France’s Victor Wembanyama, who was drafted #1 overall a year ago, is only 20. These two players are among a plethora of younger foreign athletes who have dominated basketball over the past few years. In fact, since 2019, foreign-born players have won every NBA MVP, and the past two #1 overall draft picks have hailed from overseas. 

The fall-off of America’s young talent starts with the U.S international program’s lack of streamlined investments. While NBA players who come from foreign countries, like South Sudan’s Luol Deng, invest heavily in talent identification and building a solid program, the U.S. relies on the luck of the draw. After all, America’s Amateur Athletic Union teams and high schools regularly produce college and NBA-level talent seemingly at random. On American public courts, youth can develop without any special training or facilities needed. This does not allow for a direct pipeline of talent, though, and the U.S. basketball program would benefit from a more rigid process in preparing for events like the Olympics. 

While the talent pool of American basketball youth may be too large to realistically narrow into an academy system akin to South Sudan’s, there are viable solutions that can aid America in retaining its basketball dominance. Chiefly, NBA players who wish to compete for America could be made to train for longer periods of time, adapting to each other’s strengths and weaknesses. The U.S. often falls prey to a lack of cohesion, mostly stemming from American athletes’ general belief that the NBA lends itself to preparation.

The program and players alike should anticipate the increased difficulty of international competition, especially as the talent of other countries increases exponentially. Efforts should be made to gel the roster together and to teach them the intricacies of International Basketball Federation rules, which often plays to the disadvantage of NBA athletes, many of whom are used to easier restrictions regarding foul calls and traveling.

If these changes are made, the U.S. can still regularly produce enough talent to persist as a top competitor in Olympic and other international competitions. With that being said, the era of generational, world-beating talents like James, Curry and Durant is over. The rest of the world is here to stay at the top of the international basketball food chain. The only question that remains is how long the U.S. team can stave them off.