When will US superiority in basketball be rivalled and by who?

[Dr.J4ever]

There's no question the US has restored order in world basketball, dominating both international play, while the NBA is top dog in pro hoops. However, when do you see the US start becoming just another top power in world basketball like say, Spain, or Lithuania? When will there be parity in international basketball, and which country is likely to contest the US in the next 10-20 years?

[MMM]

Canada????

Nash 2 time mvp
Anthony, Fox, Bill multiple time champions
Maglorie greatest scrub all star
Bennett greatest draft bust
Wiggins

[BoutPractice]

Not a country, but if the US were competing with Europe as a whole, it would be much more even.

Think a roster with
Parker/Dragic/Calderon
Belinelli/Thabo/Rudy/Juanca... (PGs and SGs more interchangeable in today's game so you can play Dragic at SG for instance)
Deng/Batum/Danilo (Giannis?)
Dirk/Pau/Ibaka (Bargnani?)
Marc/Noah/Pekovic (Vucevic? Asik? Gortat? There are so many good European Cs you should probably play some at the 4 spot)

You could have done that 5 years ago for instance and the roster would have been similarly, if not more, impressive. (You'd have prime Dirk and Pau but less impact at center)

The problem is that international competitions would then be less interesting as well.

[RoseCity07]

It's never going to happen. Unless we have like supersonic travel and we see players traveling to other countries and still being able to live in the United States. The NBA is always going to be the best league and kids in the US are going to grow up striving to make it one day.

[KyrieTheFuture]

It's only fair if you do similar population size and Europe will be there in 15 years. Areas of Asia too probably China/India/Japan just have so many people.

[Derka]

It won't be a single country that does it, but if Europe put together an All-Star team...that could be something.

[artificial]

As an international basketball diehard fan it hurts me to say, but likely never because no one outside USA gives a sh*t about basketball.

Basketball is far from popular in the world. While US has resources and great athletes on NFL and NBA, the rest of the world doesn't gives a rat's ass about allocating resources to basketball. No way you could ever expect to develop talent like that.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

[jzek]

Canada

Bennett + Wiggins combo will be unstoppable. Especiallt that Bennett kid... can't wait to see him play.

[Fowl]

Canada

Bennett + Wiggins combo will be unstoppable. Especiallt that Bennett kid... can't wait to see him play.
:biggums:

[MMM]

back to back #1 picks and a #4 pick just a few years before that shows signs that Canada is commng for that ass, pause

[swagga]

I've traveled quite a bit, stationed in many places.

yo if anybody gave a shit about basketball in germany or in the netherlands they'd be powerhouses.

In the netherlands the average height is 6ft 1 and it's close to this in northern germany too. Add to that they are very well coordinated. But dey mad about soccer :facepalm :facepalm Dem genes on a ***** game :lol
You got mad gene combinations like arab/black mobility/agility/hops with the euro height/nutrition. I seen some dudes playin ***** ass voleyball nikka, dey was athletic as fcuk and they was 6'7 and up. The density of tall, fit/athletic people in the netherlands is nuts compared to the us. You have tons of empty basketball courts but the soccer fields are always packed. :facepalm :confusedshrug:
Moreover euros have shittons of african immigrants who haven't picked basketball up.yet. they still stuck with soccer. :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm so tons of untapped potential right there.

Furthermore us has 322 mil and in euro germany is the biggest with 80 mil, quite the difference there, not to mention the difference in interest. You should see dem euros at dem soccer games. :applause: They put us us fans to shame. :facepalm If they'd put that into hoops..

[Random_Guy]

this question popped into my head a few days ago too. In my opinion, overall US will reign supreme over other countries whether it is overall talent or average ability. However if we are talking purely about olympics, I dont think losing to a strong euorpe team is that far fetched (see last two olympics where the US didnt pull away until the last quarter). you can beat a stronger team that has more talents if you play a team oriented game.

[swagga]

Now if you take a united EU you get a monster team that would probably beat the us team. Imagine an allstar team playing a pure old-skoll through the bigs passing game, just look at what spain did to usa in the 2 olympic finals but now you have dragic insted of scrubio and you got batum/abaka wit athleticism, dirk instead of navarro-60s-set-shot and the like. You can't run a full court press on that cuz they athletic enough. US unfortunately lacks the inside game to compete wit that and they prolly lose more often than win. 5-6 years ago it woulda it woulda been even worse for usa.

Brazil maybe in the future, some nice genetic combinations there but they madder bout soccer than fcukin europe .. but they got 220 mil people that just started eating relatively decent.

China ..maybe. But the tall ones are very uncoordinated and lack mobility/explosion, prolly due to a bad (unexistant..) diet, on the other hand 1.5 billion is plain nuts... if they ate/trained properlly they'd be close to no1 in every sport ....no chance for that for now.

Phillipenes is jus full of midgets, dey ain't got no chance, passion or no passion.

Aussie is too small.

India has 0 interest, dey playin some ***** game I ain't even know how its name. :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm

Canada is kinda small, only 40 mil with average genes and basketball is minor compared to hockey, a nice generation comin up tho.

The ruskies have some awesome combinations of size/strength but they got no interest/infrastructure for sports. Vodka is #1,#2,#3... sport over there :lol :lol

So we still no 1 doe for the forseeable future but the euros are catchin up, in 20 years it's gon get close wit the likes of france, germany and italy being the closest (arab/black immigrant + eu tall genes + good food/securtiy .. only interest is lacking)

[r0drig0lac]

Brazil :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: seriously, the last games have been well balanced

[Real Men Wear Green]

Other countries can approach our level of skill but I don't see the athleticism being matched any time soon.

[Bandito]

Other countries can approach our level of skill but I don't see the athleticism being matched any time soon.
In most countries the use of steroids is illegal so I don't see anyone catching up to the US soon, true...:confusedshrug:

[gabepizza]

The US will always be the best, mainly because of it's resources and populations. The only countries that have more population than the USA (China and India by far) are horrible basketball countries. India is poor and has no interest and China is regressing since the retirement of Yao.

Remember basketball is not the top sport in America. Football is king by far. But the future of football is bleak with concussions and all. I foresee a future with no NFL or at least diminished and the US's best athletes going into basketball. Then the US would be even more superior then it is now.

[Real Men Wear Green]

In most countries the use of steroids is illegal so I don't see anyone catching up to the US soon, true...:confusedshrug:
There's no proof that America is out-doping anyone. Many of the top countries have had doping scandals at some point in their athletic programs' history and in the specific case of basketball our athletes are passing these tests and these are guys that have been dunking since 5th or 6th grade. Guess they've been doping since they were 10.

[Real Men Wear Green]

The US will always be the best, mainly because of it's resources and populations. The only countries that have more population than the USA (China and India by far) are horrible basketball countries. India is poor and has no interest and China is regressing since the retirement of Yao.

Remember basketball is not the top sport in America. Football is king by far. But the future of football is bleak with concussions and all. I foresee a future with no NFL or at least diminished and the US's best athletes going into basketball. Then the US would be even more superior then it is now.
Football is losing some of the young athletes but won't lose them all. Basketball and football have some guys that can excel at both, there are guys like LeBron that we speculate could have made it in the NFL. But there are also guys like Jerome Bettis, who would have no place on the court at the highest levels. Football has a place for powerful guys like the offensive and defensive lineman that would be lost, undersized forwards without sf quickness or PF height. And as much money as they make with how much people in this country still love football it will not be killed off by fear of injury amongst their players and their parents.

But it might be endangered by fear of lawsuits amongst NFL ownership. That's one issue that still must be resolved to make football's future secure.

[Dr.J4ever]

There was a time about 10 years ago when it appeared Europe had caught up, but it wasn't real once the US got it's act together. The thing is when you look at Europe, the studs are getting old and no one is replacing them. Pau is fading, and so is Nowitski. Manu and Argentina are no longer threats to the US. Greece can't even beat Nigeria:lol .. Lithuania? Serbia? Not really sure who they have that can challenge vs. the best American ballers.

Honestly, it's looking grim for the internationals. Canada is intriguing if Wiggins is worth the hype. Brazil, who do they have coming up the pike?

[mr.big35]

I can see Brazil being the next team athletically wise to challenge usa. But thing is Brazil is crazy about soccer.

[Dr.J4ever]

And again, the US depth is unbelievable. We had the redeem team, the B team, the 2012 team, and now we got Hibbert, Aldridge, Lillard, MCW, Curry, and maybe Noel, and a whole lot more talent coming up in the draft. The other thing is the NBA really molds these young talents better than any league in the world could do.
Even the young and talented Euros---once they get to the NBA get better(well except Rubio this year), and then they go back and dominate in the Eurobasket.(see Goran Dragic)

The style of play in the NBA is really conducive to harnessing the best talents in a skilled young player. The NCAA produces the most talented players in the world, then these talents are perfected in the NBA. It's a great formula for the US to dominate in the foreseeable future world basketball.

[BoutPractice]

It is a bit worrying that there appears to be no true heir to Dirk, Pau and Parker in Europe right now. I thought one or several of Batum, Danilo, Valanciunas, DMo and yes, Rubio, could fill the void but it hasn't happened. The only hope is Giannis, though he mainly projects as a Pippen-lite type at this stage, that is to say closer to the Kirilenko tier than the Dirk tier. We'll see. Dragic and Pekovic are putting up great stats but they're not quite on that level either.

However, if you look outside of Europe, 3 of the top prospects (some say, the 3 top prospects period) in a draft regarded as the most promising in recent memory are international players, 2 of whom actually played in college: Embiid, Wiggins and Exum. This may well be the new trend.

[B-Easy8]

No one else invests as much into it so no one.

If Germany's number 1 sport was basketball instead of football they could probably rival the US due to height and athleticism.

[Fazotronic]

yeah probably never. i thought it would get better with the accessibility of the sport and with internet globalisation and such.
But that only cause soccer to be even more popular. It reached new heights these days and its not slowing down.
Infact the usa are getting more talent in Soccer more than anything. already been the country with the most recruted players in the world.
:biggums:

[tgan3]

USA has 300 million ++ people so it wouldn't be easy. Lithuania produces top talent but its too small at 3-4 million. As what other posters had said if Europe is considered as a whole, their players would put up a good fight against Team USA.

As for other countries, do not see them challenging USA anytime. China is improving though and if reports is to be believed they have equal to the entire population of USA playing basketball. Their basketball system is weak though, but they are young talents and they were able to hold themselves against their euro counterparts in the FIBA U-19 and U-16 tournaments.

[magnax1]

Not a country, but if the US were competing with Europe as a whole, it would be much more even.

Think a roster with
Parker/Dragic/Calderon
Belinelli/Thabo/Rudy/Juanca... (PGs and SGs more interchangeable in today's game so you can play Dragic at SG for instance)
Deng/Batum/Danilo (Giannis?)
Dirk/Pau/Ibaka (Bargnani?)
Marc/Noah/Pekovic (Vucevic? Asik? Gortat? There are so many good European Cs you should probably play some at the 4 spot)

You could have done that 5 years ago for instance and the roster would have been similarly, if not more, impressive. (You'd have prime Dirk and Pau but less impact at center)

The problem is that international competitions would then be less interesting as well.
Europe also has like twice the population of the US. Much more if you include the former soviet countries and turkey.

[MavsSuperFan]

Maybe if the EU ever decided to fully integrate (they wont) as one country. Other than that America will dominate any Basketball competition we take seriously.

[JohnFreeman]

Patty Mills + 4 Kangaroos :cheers:

[duskovujosevic]

united european states team will compete easily, that would be real battle. one or two possessions will bring winner

[Euroleague]

When they stop allowing the US to take PEDs and when the refs stop favoring the US in every single game.

Until that happens, the US won't lose probably for another 50 years.

[Walker]

A few people nailed it, Football(Soccer).

If Football was to disappear today then in 10-15 years, yes other countries would catch up.

The majority of top athletes in Europe and South America especially gravitate to Football and Asia is going that way too.

[TheGreatDeraj]

Not a country, but if the US were competing with Europe as a whole, it would be much more even.

Think a roster with
Parker/Dragic/Calderon
Belinelli/Thabo/Rudy/Juanca... (PGs and SGs more interchangeable in today's game so you can play Dragic at SG for instance)
Deng/Batum/Danilo (Giannis?)
Dirk/Pau/Ibaka (Bargnani?)
Marc/Noah/Pekovic (Vucevic? Asik? Gortat? There are so many good European Cs you should probably play some at the 4 spot)

You could have done that 5 years ago for instance and the roster would have been similarly, if not more, impressive. (You'd have prime Dirk and Pau but less impact at center)

The problem is that international competitions would then be less interesting as well.

That is a nice team, and that team could compete for a NBA title, but no way is that team comparable to the USA's top players.

Cp3/Westbrook/Lillard/Curry
Kobe/Harden/Wade
Durant/George/Melo
Lebron/Love/Davis/Aldridge
Howard/Hibbert/Cousins

[Dr.J4ever]

When they stop allowing the US to take PEDs and when the refs stop favoring the US in every single game.

Until that happens, the US won't lose probably for another 50 years.
I agree. I'm sure only Americans are tempted to take PEDS.. Other athletes outside the US surely don't feel the pressures and stay clean. That's for sure.

And those damn FIBA refs just love Americans. Why? Why? :roll:

[BasedTom]

I can see Lithuania, Spain, Russia, and France rising up in the next couple of years. Ex-Yugoslavia is also still producing a lot of good players.

One thing is for certain. Greece will always be a joke at any serious level. It's not a stretch to say that they're inferior compared to any other European country. I expect to see an NBA star from the Faroe Islands or San Marino before I see a successful Greek player make it in the NBA.

[Rooster]

I can see Lithuania, Spain, Russia, and France rising up in the next couple of years. Ex-Yugoslavia is also still producing a lot of good players.

One thing is for certain. Greece will always be a joke at any serious level. It's not a stretch to say that they're inferior compared to any other European country. I expect to see an NBA star from the Faroe Islands or San Marino before I see a successful Greek player make it in the NBA.

It looks like a Macedonian player Pero Antic is more competitive in the best league that any genuine Greek players ever .

[orange_chicken]

Thailand

[DaSeba5]

A few people nailed it, Football(Soccer).

If Football was to disappear today then in 10-15 years, yes other countries would catch up.

The majority of top athletes in Europe and South America especially gravitate to Football and Asia is going that way too.

This.

This is also the reason why America is not caught up in soccer because the best American athletes are playing other sports (mainly American football and basketball).

[Euroleague]

I can see Lithuania, Spain, Russia, and France rising up in the next couple of years. Ex-Yugoslavia is also still producing a lot of good players.

One thing is for certain. Greece will always be a joke at any serious level. It's not a stretch to say that they're inferior compared to any other European country. I expect to see an NBA star from the Faroe Islands or San Marino before I see a successful Greek player make it in the NBA.

France? Parker is retiring (he already said he isn't playing in 2014)....They won't do crap. Besides that, they have one gold medal in their entire history.

Russia? Kirilenko and Khryapa retired. They won't do crap.

Spain? After this summer, Navarro, Reyes, Calderon, and Pau are probably all retiring, but for sure Navarro, Reyes, and Pau are done. What the hell is Spain going to do? Is Brickio going to win medals?

Besides that, if Catalonia breaks away, they sure won't be winning any medals for years.

And ex Yugoslavia isn't a country anymore.

Typical NBA only fan.

[Sakkreth]

That is a nice team, and that team could compete for a NBA title, but no way is that team comparable to the USA's top players.

Cp3/Westbrook/Lillard/Curry
Kobe/Harden/Wade
Durant/George/Melo
Lebron/Love/Davis/Aldridge
Howard/Hibbert/Cousins

Lol ok I agree that USA has a slight edge over that team, but you say compete for NBA title ? That team would probably lose like 1 game in playoffs.