Although the 2025-26 NBA season is still about a few weeks away, basketball fans around the world are being treated to hoops on a near nightly basis. For those interested in the WNBA, the premier women’s basketball league is in the best place ever, talent-wise. For those who consider themselves FIBA aficionados, there are multiple tournaments being hosted around the world.
Africa just wrapped up AfroBasket, with NBA veteran Bruno Fernando helping lead Angola to their 12th championship. In Europe, the 2025 EuroBasket competition features hoops icons like Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Los Angeles Lakers point guard Luka Doncic. In Nicaragua, the many countries that make up the Americas met up to play for the AmeriCup.
FIBA AmeriCup 2025 Provides More Evidence Against Team USA
If anyone rooting for the United States was watching them play in the AmeriCup tournament, they’d have come away disappointed by what they witnessed.
Good, But Not Good Enough
It isn’t often that a team that inspires thoughts about the cream of the crop falls to a Bruno Caboclo-led squad. Yet, that’s exactly what happened this weekend when Brazil completed a comeback to knock Team USA out of the championship game. Of course, losing to Brazil in the AmeriCup semifinals didn’t prevent Team USA from being able to medal.
Nevertheless, the highest that they could finish is third-place. That’s only if they took down Washington Wizards swingman Kyshawn George and Team Canada. In that scenario, it would mark the second straight AmeriCup tournament that Team USA won a bronze medal.
For most countries, this would be a desirable outcome. For a country that’s home to the vast majority of that league’s top players, it’s not. With that in mind, the U.S. men’s basketball team has won 10 AmeriCup championships. Prior to this year, there were only two AmeriCup tournaments in which the U.S. men’s team didn’t get gold.
On Sunday, a five-point win over the Canadian contingent indeed allowed Team USA to walk away with a third-place finish.
However, as Team Canada shot 52.3 percent from the field, the U.S. side was lucky to stay in front. Frankly,their interior and exterior defense is atrocious. Just consider that the United States allowed Canada to score an unholy 58 points in the paint and to shoot 64.6 percent from 3. Team USA even coughed up the ball 10 times, leading to 14 of Canada’s points.
Fortunately for the U.S., they do have solid scorers. By the end of AmeriCup, Team USA’s leading scorer was Javonte Smart, who averaged 15.7 points per game on .554-.478-.917 shooting splits. Four other Americans were able to score in double-figures (Langston Galloway, Tyler Cavanaugh, Zachary Auguste, Jahmius Ramsey). Their ball-movement helped prevent the offense from being overly reliant on one-on-one scoring, though the attack is undoubtedly guard-driven.
Seriously Though
Because events like AmeriCup are seen as lesser FIBA events, many nations won’t send their best players. That wasn’t the case for Brazil’s national team, which bore plenty of resemblance to their roster from the Paris Olympics. However, the amount of realized domestic talent that the U.S. has exceeds that of less developed countries.
Even still, it’s high time that Team USA begins to take non-Olympic international basketball tournaments seriously. Coming in third place behind Brazil and Argentina should be a wake-up call. These are countries with one active NBA player (Golden State Warriors forward Gui Santos) between them.
As seen in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, merely adding stars isn’t enough to light up the sky though. Despite being led by players like Minnesota Timberwolves wing Anthony Edwards and Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton, the U.S. came in fourth-place. With that being said, chemistry is incredibly important in international competitions, as players need to have comfort with each other and their roles.
Who Can Lead The Charge?
So far as Team USA is concerned, several of the players that represent the nation in non-Olympic international tournaments should be considered part of the team’s foundation. However, mixing in NBA stars with a defensive base would go a long way. These would ideally be players who aren’t quite good enough to be locks for the Olympics and would be motivated by the opportunity to represent Team USA in a different competition.
One player that fits that description include Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown. Now a perennial All-Star, Brown was candid about feeling snubbed by the selection committee during the Paris Olympics. Younger players that come to mind are Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes and Oklahoma City Thunder swingman Jalen Williams. Notably, Barnes and Williams are under 25 years old, which gives them plenty of time to gel over the years.
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