TEAM USA IS NO LOCK TO WIN ANYTHING, INCLUDING A GAME WITH SOUTH SUDAN
Folks can run and hide if they think a basketball gold medal is easy, after the Americans were outplayed and outhustled by a new nation and head to the Olympics with a series of questions and doubts
A Saturday night in London was not a battle of bloodshed for South Sudan. Wedged in East Africa and spanned by the Nile RIver, the nation won a civil war in 2020. Hundreds of thousands died, including children. Not until this year did it receive recognition as a sovereign state, after gaining independence in 2011.
What was a basketball game at the O2 Arena?
Oh, until Carlik Jones missed an open jumper off the glass with four seconds left, South Sudan almost beat Team USA in what would have been an all-time sports upset. Or a raw debacle. Or whatever you wish to call the Americans after nearly losing to this team and Australia. It was an exhibition, days before the Olympics in Paris, but as a 43.5-point favorite, the game should have been easier than a Westminster Abbey visit.
Instead, LeBron James was required to demand some sort of order — he was losing 100-99 with 20 seconds left — and drive past former Charlotte Hornets forward JT Thor for a winning layup. Only seconds earlier, Thor had nailed a three-pointer for a lead. As yet, the Americans don’t look serious about winning a gold medal when the world has made dramatic improvements through time. They were outhustled all night. They made only 7 of 28 three-pointers and were almost outrebounded. They made 12 turnovers. And where was Steph Curry, who made 3 of 10 shots, and Anthony Edwards, who went 1 of 7 from the three area?
“I’m going to be honest. I like those better than the blowouts,” James said. “At least we get tested. Doesn’t matter how close the game is.”
It doesn’t?
“A good reminder that when we play against teams, it’s the biggest game of their lives,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “We have to expect everyone to play like that.”
They don’t expect it. The opponents were known as the Bright Stars, put together by ex-NBA mainstay Luol Deng and coached by Royal Ivey, an assistant with the Houston Rockets. When they qualified for the Summer Games in Manila, Deng said memorably, “We're the first team in the history of basketball to make the World Cup, I believe, without an indoor court in their country. There's a lot that I could say to it. But it's also exciting because it allows us to show the potential of South Sudan.”
Potential? What we know is that Team USA must play South Sudan and Serbia, with Nikola Jokic, and Puerto Rico in Group C of Olympic competition in Lille. Will our NBA superstars get through? I assume. Will they win it all? I have no idea, meaning you can stop comparisons to the Dream Team of the 1990s. Even Bol Bol wasn’t on the Bright Stars — he played for Phoenix last season at 7-3, as the son of the late Manute Bol — which should have schooled the Americans. As it was, Jones was with the Chicago Bulls and was named G-League Player of the Year two years ago; so his triple-double wasn’t surprising. Marial Shayok played briefly in Philadelphia and finished with 25 points and hit 6 of 12 threes. Wenyan Gabriel played with James and Anthony Davis on the Lakers and joined Bam Adebayo at Kentucky.
Kerr blamed himself. “I did not do a great job preparing our team,” he said. “We did not focus enough on what they’re capable of, and that’s on me. I think that allowed South Sudan to gain confidence early. They were great. They played a wonderful game and the ending was good for us, just to feel that, to feel what it’s going to be like in Paris and Lille.”
Most of all, players who grew up in North America and Australia made their young nation proud. Many are descendants of refugees, including Peter Yok, whose father was killed. Deng became a major player in Chicago and Miami after leaving the country, with eight siblings, for Egypt. Granted political asylum with his family in London, he was discovered by a scout who brought him to an academy and a career at Duke.
“We always lived our life prepared that one day we will go back,” Deng said. “I think that's why I always believe in giving back and knowing that there's a lot of people that you know back home that need everything that we're providing.”
These were the players facing James, Curry and Kerr. LeBron made damned sure the Americans didn’t lose, as his son continues to have downs and ups with the Summer League Lakers. But in the end, didn’t they lose anyway?
“It’s basketball. It happens,” Curry said. “You want to play perfect every game. It doesn’t happen. But can you dig deep and do the little things that help you win? Offense can come and go, but defense is the thing that helps you win championships, medals, all that stuff.”
Before the game, U.S. center Joel Embiid was asked about the gold medal. His response was limp. “You look at the talent that the U.S. has, but there’s equal talent on other teams. And the talent that’s on the U.S. team, you also got to understand most of those guys are older,” he said. “The LeBron now is not the LeBron that was a couple of years ago. So it’s a big difference. Everybody would also tell you, and you can see for yourself, the athletic LeBron, dominant that he was a couple of years ago, is not the same that he is now. I think people get fooled by the names on paper. But those names have been built throughout their career, and now they’re older. They’re not what they used to be.”
South Sudan was an Olympic game that we were going to miss.
Not now.
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.