Team USA Basketball 2024 (Men's)
- Thread starter Capt. Factorial
- Start date
I remember debating more than a few crazy people that were predicting a mass migration of players to Europe after Josh Childress and a few others did it back around 2008ish due to supposed tax benefits. I was essentially being laughed at and mocked for believing they were out of their minds.
All these years later and I’m still waiting for the migration to happen to validate their laughter.
All these years later and I’m still waiting for the migration to happen to validate their laughter.
We had opportunity to ruin lebron's last dance, but it wasn't meant to be... That would be a cherry on top of our possible victory
Now guys, I need to ask you something. Will this tournament help to attract larger masses of people in the US to follow their NT in future, in a way that we europeans do?
Far as I can see, that kind of culture never developed in US, and it will mean a lot for a basketball as a sport.
Now guys, I need to ask you something. Will this tournament help to attract larger masses of people in the US to follow their NT in future, in a way that we europeans do?
Far as I can see, that kind of culture never developed in US, and it will mean a lot for a basketball as a sport.
No, for two reasons:
- USA is one of the few countries (and maybe the only one) in the world where both the athletes and the fans consider our club league championships (talking about team sports, specifically) to be more important than any international competition. Hell, it was only a year ago that there was a minor controversy over people referring to the Nuggets as "World Champions." In the aggregate and in general, you're never going to get buy-in from Americans about international competition being a big deal.
- As already implied a few posts above, a lot of Americans don't actually like the athletes that play for USAB, and would rather see them lose, because they don't like them as individuals, than see USA win, Because of Reasons™.
- Personally, I'm the opposite: as you may know, I got out of the "rooting-for-teams" business several years ago. I care more about the name on the back than I do the name on the front, except where USAB is concerned.
Not unlike other team sports where the United States has been historically dominant, but a certain segment of fans don't like the athletes who participate in them (the USWNT, to name another), a win buys them nothing. Fans only care if they lose, so they can be mad, and some of them actively root for the team to fail.
There are a number of reasons, many of which are not appropriate content for his message board. But, I mean, you got someone upthread told you himself that he was rooting against USAB: why don't you ask him? Get it straight from the horse's mouth, as it were? Maybe he's rooting against the players because of some childish NBA-related stuff, maybe it's related to the aforementioned forbidden content, or maybe it's something else entirely, that I hadn't even considered.
Also, just as a point of clarification, the USWNT that I was referring to was the football team. Although I'm pretty sure that anyone rooting against the women's NT in football is also rooting against them in basketball, and likely for similar reasons.
Also, just as a point of clarification, the USWNT that I was referring to was the football team. Although I'm pretty sure that anyone rooting against the women's NT in football is also rooting against them in basketball, and likely for similar reasons.
I wouldn't hold my breath: Americans, in the aggregate and in general, tend to be... isolationists (sure, let's call it that) at heart. A possibly unintended byproduct of being indoctrinated from childhood to believe that you live in the best country in the world is a lack of interest in becoming a worldly citizen. The likelihood that you're ever going to get a substantial percentage of American basketball fans to believe that either the World Cup or the Olympics are even as big a deal as the NBA Championship is very low: a ton of American fans only care about international competitions to the extent that they can be used as tools to diminish the NBA players they don't like.