Is Kevin Durant Right about USA Basketball’s Place in the World?

 Team USA basketball captured their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal with their victory over France in the championship round on Friday, Aug. 6. As they proudly flexed their new jewelry, dripping in champagne, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green looked to settle the score with doubters of their mission in Tokyo. 

Durant and Green took exception to ideas that Team USA wasn’t the favorites in some power rankings and that some media members picked them to lose. The former NBA teammates and current Olympic champions first directed their ire towards Kendrick Perkins, a former teammate of Durant and ESPN pundit. 

Green said, “Act like you’re American,” in reference to Perkins saying he wasn’t confident after the U.S. beat Argentina in Las Vegas before the trip to Tokyo. 

Then KD said, “this skill is unmatched,” referencing the discussion about the rest of the world’s place in the sport’s hierarchy. 

Durant’s comments seemed disingenuous, considering the win over France ended in a two-possession game. The deeper U.S. squad had 12 NBA players in contrast to the French team’s eight, who are not all on the same level as the Americans. 

In large part, most of the world’s elite basketball players come from the United States and work for an NBA team.  Yet, the NBA’s population consists of 24% foreign-born athletes. Their impact is not going unnoticed.

The MVP of the league, Nikola Jokic, is Serbian.  Second in line for that honor, this year was center Joel Embiid from Cameroon.  Rudy Gobert from France was the Defensive Player of the Year, an award he has claimed three of the last four seasons.  Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece is the reigning Finals MVP.

The final four teams of the Playoffs included a foreign big-man.  Out west, Deandre Ayton of the Bahamas was the mismatch that doomed the Clippers in round three, rarely failing an attempt near the basket.  Ivica Zubac of Croatia, was serviceable near the rim for the LA Clippers, even after the team lost the help defense of Kawhi Leonard to injury. 

 On the other coast, there was the Greek Freak for the eventual champions Milwaukee Bucks whose performance in the Finals is reminiscent of Magic Johnson and Bob Pettit’s during the title round.  Clint Capela of Switzerland, for the Atlanta Hawks, was the NBA’s leading rebounder and was an integral component to the Hawks’ breakthrough season. 

In the past few years, the impact of 3-point shooting hasn’t been the primary focal point for winning teams in the NBA. The Milwaukee Bucks splashed 32.1% of their deep attempts during the Postseason. The mean for this latest year was 36.7%, according to basketballrefence.com.  In the bubble, the Lakers shot 35.6% from deep when the average for 2020 was 35.8%. In 2019, the Toronto Raptors converted 34.4% of their triples through four rounds when the average for that season was 35.5%. 

Nonetheless, signature qualities of the last three championship teams were their defensive versatility and size. The Bucks were unforgiving in their pursuit of rebounds, limiting Phoenix’s second opportunities. The Lakers overpowered the Miami Heat in similar fashion, snatching 45 more rebounds through six games.  The Raptors were relentless in their hounding of Stephen Curry with multiple defenders, and more so after the injuries to Durant and Klay Thompson when the Raptors implemented a box-and-one, completely disrespecting every other Warrior on the floor. 

Keeping in mind that as of late, size has shown to be more valuable than perfecting a circus shot, how has the world not caught up in some aspects of the game, according to Durant, when the best big men in the NBA are no longer American? Pat Riley famously once said, “No rebounds, no rings.” A term that applies to all but the anomaly Miami Heat during title runs for 2012-2013.