There were no Americans on the FIBA All-World Cup Team
Having a representative on the all-tournament team after finishing seventh in the FIBA World Cup is probably nothing to write home about. But Team USA being left off the honors team, or the “All-Star Five,” entirely is just salt being rubbed in the wound.
No Americans on the all-World Cup team: Bogdanovic (Serbia), Fournier (France), Rubio (Spain), Gasol (Spain), and Scola (Argentina). Rubio named tournament MVP
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) September 15, 2019
Indeed, the international players stole the show at the World Cup. In the wake of Spain claiming gold on Sunday, Ricky Rubio and Marc Gasol made the All-World Cup Team along with France’s Evan Fournier, Serbia’s Bogdan Bogdanovic and Argentina’s Luis Scola.
Lack of offense for Team USA at FIBA World Cup
This is not much of a surprise, considering Team USA did not advance deep into the tournament and their leading scorer was Kemba Walker (14.4 points per game) who ranked just 28th among all players.
The next-closest scorer was Donovan Mitchell, who was 44th at 13.3 points per game. Harrison Barnes at 60th (11.6 points per game) rounded out the only three Americans who averaged double digits in the tournament.
Despite head coach Gregg Popovich’s best efforts, there’s no way to sugarcoat just how poorly Team USA performed. Sure, many stars opted against participating and the roster was banged up toward the end, but that all-tournament team would look much different had the Americans played even close to their potential.
Nothing against the selections; all of them are or were previously serviceable NBA players. They excelled in the international tournament and their respective teams gelled much better than Team USA.
But this is just another indication of just how far south the FIBA World Cup went for the red, white and blue.
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