It’s not a secret that the United States’ basketball team always features the best players on Earth. They call up some of the biggest NBA superstars to create a nearly-unbeatable squad when it’s time to play in the Olympics or the FIBA World Cup.
Nonetheless, given its current form and some of the faces we’re seeing nowadays, it seems like FIBA no longer consider Team USA as the clear-cut favorite as we’re just some days away from the Tokyo Olympics.
According to its latest power rankings, FIBA believe that Australia is number one, Spain number two, and the United States national team ranks third. The rest of the ranking is completed by Nigeria, Slovenia, France, Italy, Argentina, Germany, the Czech Republic, Japan, and Iran.
This is somewhat unsurprising if you consider that Team Australia is also full of NBA talents. Also, they’ve been playing together for quite a long time and are one of the best well-round teams.
Needless to say, the fans also had a lot to say about this ranking, but none of them seemed surprised about the fact that Team USA wasn’t at the top.
Also, with Bradley Beal and Kevin Love out of the equation, some don’t believe that adding JaVale McGee and Keldon Johnson is enough for them to go back to the top, especially after going 2-2 in warm-up games.
Then again, we should know better than to count Team USA out when it comes to international play. There’s a reason why they’re always heavily favored to win it all. But hey, watch out for the rest of the world, as they won’t go down easily.
