I wasn’t surprised that the United States men’s national basketball team wouldn’t win the 2019 FIBA World Cup. I was a bit surprised that they lost in the quarterfinals to France on Wednesday, however.
There are a couple reasons why the Americans didn’t perform as well. First, the Americans didn’t bring any of their top players to China. And second, the Americans don’t have a core group of players who have much chemistry together, something that most FIBA Europe teams like France have.
I don’t think the Americans played particularly poorly in China.