After a disappointing display at the World Cup in China, Kobe Bryant believes the Americans cannot be considered as automatic winners at major tournaments anymore.
Bryant was a part of the second strongest Team USA after the Dream Team in 1992 — the “Redeem Team” in 2008. He led that generation with a fantastic fourth quarter performance against Spain and started the 58-game winning run which ended with a defeat to France. Despite a disastrous 7th place in China, Bryant doesn’t think this Team needs to be redeemed at the 2020 Olympics in Japan.
“It’s not a matter of the rest of the world catching up to the U.S., it’s that the rest of the world has been caught up for quite some time,” Bryant said. “And it’s to the point now where us in the U.S. are going to win some, we’re going lose some. And that’s just how it goes.”
Take what Kobe Bryant said (“US going to win some and lose some”) and what McCollum said (stars didn’t want to be the face of, “a losing roster”) and that’s trouble for USA Basketball.
More chance of losing will scare off stars. Which means more losing:https://t.co/Ofp8GVRFNa
— Sean Deveney (@SeanDeveney) September 13, 2019
Bryant shrugged off the idea that Team USA’s struggles in China can be attributed to withdrawals of the top players who opted not to play this summer.
“I hear that a lot: ‘Did we send the best possible team that we can put out there?’” Bryant said. “You have to remember, on the Redeem Team we needed a hell of a fourth quarter to beat Spain. That was a hell of a team we had. We still needed a real late push to beat Spain in that gold-medal match. So I say that to say, put the best players that you think are going to make the best U.S. team out on the floor, we are still going to have challenges. It’s not going to be a cakewalk. The days of the ’92 Barcelona Dream Team are gone. They’re over, so it’s going to be tough.”
The Black Mamba played for Team USA at three major tournaments and never suffered a defeat. Still, he declined to feature several times due to injury reasons, and when he got married in 2000, missing the Sydney Olympics in the process. That’s why he supports players who declined to play this summer for whatever reason.
“Some of those guys haven’t had the opportunity to play for the United States, so I’m sure if their health allowed them to, they certainly would’ve been over here playing,” Bryant said in an interview with ESPN.
“But a lot of those guys are coming off of serious injuries and trying to figure out how to navigate through that to get healthy again and back to 100%. Other guys are moving, moving to different cities and getting their families to settle in. It’s a big adjustment for families, so I certainly understand it.”
H/T: ESPN