You just don't get it people, for Americans It's just another World Cup where they likely will get Gold and head back home like nothing happened and will just add to their collection one more gold... For European basketball players it means everything to represent their country in their respective sports for fans It means even more they are watching all together in bars, they are travelling and cheering for the team so passionate, they all are their heroes and just for those two weeks whether It's European, World Cup or even Olympics, they forgot about their struggles just to live for that moment...
And the players who play for their NT are heroes for their fans, the guys who withdraw from NT not because of injuries, but personal reason are becoming Nations fans number one enemy even if he played all years previously for National team. (In my National Team case Porzingis became Nations top 1 enemy after he said no to NT in 2015, and still some peole hold grudge even though he played in 2017 for NT).
It's that damn deep, my country is not representing this years World Cup because of stupid FIBA, but still I Will be cheering for my neighbour country and I can't even imagine what they will be feeling for those two weeks...
As I said it American people just don't get it.