[Dwayne Wade] On the global skill gap: “There’s 68 NBA players in this field alone and will probably be more, we continue to dominate the game but it’s not going to be easy… this is not 1992 everybody need to get that out their minds.”
by Rojanhan12
@National Basketball Association
15 Comments
“The days of 1992 Barcelona are long gone”
– Kobe Bryant, 2019
[deleted]
Obviously the field is way better than 1992 but I was looking up the box score of past gold medal games after yesterdays game and that 1992 Croatia team had an awesome big 3 of Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja (all had great success in the NBA) and the dream team still destroyed them in the gold medal game. Feel like that Croatia team doesn’t get enough love for how talented they were
To go from 92 to the US losing in Athens in 04 was insane. ~~22~~ 12 years between the Dream Team blowing everyone out and 2004 being the wake up call that the Americans could no longer sleepwalk through the tournament.
The world caught up fast.
In 1992 there were 23 international players in the NBA, in 2024 there are 125
The way I see it was in 1992 USA was arguably at its peak in basketball in terms of skill, let’s say 95% while other countries were around 50%
Today, USA is I’d say is around 98%, the world is probably somewhere around 80-90%
I don’t get how USA is expected to blow teams out, when they have almost peaked and teams are catching up…..
Yes these are just random numbers to illustrate my point
Don’t think US is gonna dominate especially if they can’t have players that could commit long-term to the program. It needs to build chemistry cause they can’t rely mostly on talent anymore.
I think if the 2016 or 2021 Olympic team played this year, they might not even make the finals, let alone get the gold.
I agree with the world getting better, but people on here act like it’s USA vs World. Halliburton didn’t even play for us, he’d be at worst the 2nd best guy on any of the other teams in the field.
# Tatum and Brown boycotting 2028 if it’s Kerr?
Let’s paint the picture…
The Celtics win multiple championships over the next few years. Tatum and Brown are the top American players in 2028 by a mile.
Sure, new players like Cooper could be good early and Booker and Edwards are still around but let’s pretend the pecking order is that clear.
These two guys aren’t gonna answer the call for anything but the Olympics. They presumably have had 4 long NBA seasons going to the finals each year.
Did USA Basketball burn some bridges? These two guys are gonna have a ton of leverage.
Not having two NBA first team’rs on the 28 squad could very well mean the difference between Gold and not medaling.
Now… if it’s the NBA and a star says he will play but wants a coaching change or even a front office change… it’s very possible that happens. Does that kinda thing fly in USAB? Behind close doors, do they say no to Kerr and Grant Hill?
I don’t have a problem with rotations or leaving a guy off in favor of glue guys but I do think USA hoops disrespected them in how it happened and it was a bad look… especially because they are the future and are working on their brand as well as their game.
Classic misspelling of Dwyane Wades first name.
Scouting reports are also available for purchase and the international coaches are plenty capable of guiding their team. Other national teams also tend to build consistency and USA basketball can keep relying on individual greatness & just guys hooping without coaching staff building the right conditions for success.
This gets way overblown. The fact is that these US teams are still struggling against teams they have no business struggling against. None of these games should have been under 20 point games just based on the talent disparity alone.
it’s not USA vs. World, every single game is still an NBA all-star team vs. a lottery team lol
I think a lot of people think that there’s a drastic gap between the best NBA player and the worst. But I think the reality is that the gap is much smaller than most people think.
Let’s be real though, a lot of this comes from them being less stringent on what teams guys can play for. Kyle Anderson isn’t happening in 1992