A Summer of Team USA Basketball Fun is Exactly What the NBA Needs

In the first game of a hopefully Olympic campaign for team USA’s basketball roster, the Americans bested Serbia with a resounding 110-84 victory. Yet, the conversation isn’t about beating Jokic nor Kevin Durant’s 23 points off the bench. The fun and light hearted nature is both a sign of the good tidings between old rivals in the NBA and the sheer dominance that the United States has over the basketball world. 

The NBA has done a fantastic job at growing basketball into a worldly game of players and fans. The most obvious instance of this is the 2023-2024 NBA award where top four candidates hailed from Serbia, Canada, Slovenia, and Greece. Even a quick look back to the 2017-2018 MVP race where Giannis Antetokounpo was the only non-American in the top 10 shows the progress that global talent has made in the NBA. Although Adam Silver and the NBA have cultivated a multitude of international stars and a decent international audience, the depth of talent is still very U.S. concentrated. With over 75% of actively rostered NBA players being born and raised on U.S. soil, it really is no surprise that team USA is the dominant force in basketball. The American squad reigns supreme with 11 of team USA’s 12 man roster (sorry Derrick White) being  multiple time all stars and eight cumulative MVP’s on the Olympic roster. 

This dominance has been well documented though, as team USA basketball has taken gold in every year since 2008. The lighthearted nature of this team shows that the players know it too. From bench celebrations to smiles at team practice, the Olympics serve as an almost all star game for American NBA talent that wants to train and spend a fun summer with teammates and rivals alike. Despite Germany’s Fiba World Cup win, Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray backcourt, or France’s Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama frontcourt tandem, it seems unlikely that any one country will catch the likes of American basketball anytime soon. So who can really blame the team USA basketball squad for treating it like a vacation with a side of hoop? 

Two Celtics Jayson Tatum and Derrick White share a laugh during a Team USA practice

Another team USA gold medal seems inevitable for the men’s basketball squad. Expect vibes to be at an all time high for NBA franchises and players after a successful and restful offseason.