MADRID– The United States, who fielded the youngest team in the FIBA World Cup, left no doubt who has the best men’s basketball program in the world Sunday when they blasted Serbia, 129-92, to win a second consecutive gold medal in this pre-Olympic qualifying competition.
One for the biggest surprises was how easy Team USA, which was missing 2012 Olympic stars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook, made it look, finishing unbeaten and winning their nine games by an average of 35 points.
The success of the U.S. national team reverberated throughout this world, but there was open disappointment and a disenchantment here as high scoring Spain, which had nine current or former NBA stars and was considered by some to be the favorite because it was playing on its home soil, went through an unexpected meltdown during a 65-52 loss to France in the quarterfinals of the opposite bracket.
Spain, which had pushed Team USA in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics at Beijing and London, scoring over 100 points in each closely contested gold medal loss. The Spanish, who won two of the last three European championships, had been considered the U.S.’ biggest rival entering the competition. But joy turned to bitterness when their fans never got to to see the gold medal game everyone was waiting for.
It didn’t take long for the Spanish media on to react. the Spanish newspaper El Mundo wrote an scathing analysis, comparing the collapses of both the Spanish futball and basketball teams in World Cup competitions and matching up the stars of each team the the roles they played on the world stage.
Spanish national basketball coach Juan Antonio Orenga took a lot of heat for the way he allowed France to control tempo and the fact his team got a combined 3-for-21 shooting from stars Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Ricky Rubio and shot a dreadful 2-for-22 from the three as the France shut down the middle with 7-1 Rudy Gobert and forced Spain to hurry shots in the fourth quarter when it only scored nine points.
Orenga, who took over from Italian Sergio Scariolo in November 2012, was widely blamed for Spain’s failure to advance to the gold medal game and some of the local fans attending Sunday’s final chanted for him to go.
Two days later, he resigned.
“To have presented my resignation leaves me with a clear conscience,” Orgena told the Spanish sports paper Marca. “There was no need to extend this further. I think it’s humble to do so. I’ve worked as best as I could have. The past few days have been very hard, I have analyzed many things. The most painful aspect has been the pressure I’ve put myself under to try to know where I went wrong.
“I’ve seen the game three times and I’ve decided not to see it again for a long time so that when I do, I can do so with a different perspective.
“It’s clear that I made mistakes, otherwise, we would have won.”
The early exit was one of the biggest disappointments in the career of Spanish basketball icon, 34-year-old, 7-1 center Pau Gasol, who won two NBA titles with the Lakers and now plays for the Chicago Bulls.
Gasol, the MVP of the 2006 FIBA World Championship and a member of the 2014 All Star five, was one of the few elite Spanish players who showed up against France.
“Whenever you don’t achieve an aim you can consider it a failure, a disappointment, a defeat,” Gasol said. “Our dream was to reach the Final and to play against whoever, in this case it would have been the United States. But it was not to be. We played a terrible game (against France) but we had options until the end. I thought that winning our first round games with a big-point margin could be a double-edged sword. In the end we played our worst game on our most important day.
Gasol went on to cast doubts on his future as a player for the Spanish national team. “You never know when it is your last game or your last tournament,” Gasol said after the loss to France.
It may have been a knee jerk reaction to the shock involved. But even if Gasol does change his mind and his 7-0 brother Marc, Ibaka, Rudy Fernandez and Rubio are in uniform, it is likely Spain will have to rebuild its guard line if Jose Caulderon and Juan Carlos Navarro opt out because of age.
The next great power in Europe may well be France, particularly if NBA All Star caliber point guard Tony Parker of the Spurs and 6-9 Joakim Noah of the Bulls, decide to play in Rio. The French have a nice combination of youth and experience and a coach Vincent Collet who thinks out of the box. Guard Nicolas Batum from the Portland Trail Blazers, who went off for 35 points in a close semi-final loss to Serbia, and forward Boris Diaw of the Spurs should both be back along with young talents like the 22-year old shot blocking Gobert of the Utah Jazz, 21-year old forward Evan Fornier and 25-year old guard Thomas Huertel.
In addition, three players who would have made the 12-man roster– 6-10, 278-pound Kevin Seraphin of the Washington Wizards, 7-2 Alexis Ajinca of the New Orleans Pelicans and 6-5 guard Nando De Colo of CSKA Moscow– did not play. Seraphin, who just signed a $3.8 million offer to play for the Wizards, was not given a release to play because he was recovering from knee surgery. Ajinca passed because he wife was due to give birth during the tournament and de Colo from recovering from a fractured wrist.
If Parker, Noah and every one else mentioned plays, the French will have enough size and sophisicated point guard play to match Spain’s talent on paper and medal.
Two other teams– Australia and Canada– could challenge European dominance in Rio, provided Canada qualifies for one of two spots in an pre-Olympic Americas qualifying tournament, which most likely will be held in Mexico Canada will have to battle Argentina, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. But the Canadians have a young core of high NBA draft picks like Cory Joseph, Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, Tristan Thompson, Kelly Olynyk, Andrew Nicholson, Tyler Ennis and Nik Stauskas who should make them dangerous if they continue to mature within the next year.
As for Australia, aside from a reported tanking scandal against Angola, the Aussies had a good tournament and could have beaten Turkey if not for a wide open miracle three pointer from guard Emir Preidzic with five seconds to play. And they did it all without three point shooting guard Patty Mills from San Antonio Spurs. If their young players like 6-10 Cameron Bairstow and Dante Exum– who surprisingly did not get much time as a backup to Matthew Dellavedova from the Cleveland Cavaliers, keep improving and center Andrew Bogut is healthy, they have enough size and guard play to be a dark horse medal team.
As thing stand now, the gap between the United States and the rest of the world is only growing.
“We didn’t play our best game,” Serbian coach Sasha Djordevic said. “But the U.S. was deserving of the gold medal. They kicked our butts. This was the first time we have played the U.S. in a major international competition. They have 12 NBA players. We have none. I don’t think (7-0 center) Miroslav (Raduljica), who played for the Bucks, is coming back. We will have to use this game as a mesuring stick so see what we have to do so we can compete with them in the future.”
