Doug Gottlieb: āCan I tell you what REALLY is the problem by my estimation as somebody who loves the sport and loves our country? BASKETBALL CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES SUCKS and itās our own fault. Itās not LeBronās fault, but what LeBron did epitomizes what basketball has become. Our fight for college players to be able to get paid and then to be able to change teams without having to sit a year is all part of the problem. If you watch both of those last two teams who beat USA you would say āI like watching them play more.ā You know Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard one-on-one or over the duration of an NBA season are better players, but theyāre not a āTEAMā, and we donāt teach the value of āteam.ā Those guys [The US opponents] play together for years because they WANT to play for their country and theyāll do anything it takes because itās an incredible honorā¦ The culture of basketball SUCKS in the country. We have these camps where basically itās like whoever gets the ball goes one-on-one and if they score we put it on social media and we call that kid a top 20 player in his class. We publicize āhEās iN tHe lAb dOiNg wOrK!ā. Heās not working on passing, heās not working on sliding, playing defense, or doing anything other than what they do against a cone, and ālOoK aT tHaT eUrO sTeP!ā Our culture sucks and EVERYBODY KNOWS IT AND NOBODY WILL SAY IT EXCEPT ME. We teach people not to value āteamāā¦ Thatās what happened [to Team USA}. Theyāre [Austalia and Nigeria] a TEAM, weāre not. They value the front of the jersey, and we just think itās an āhonor.ā No, no, no, no, no ā when you represent the greatest country in the history of mankind, you have to PLAY as though youāre representing the greatest country in the history of mankind. We donāt take pride in āteamā, we donāt take pride in sharing the ball, we donāt take pride in team defense, and we donāt take pride in representing our countryā¦ Itās an exposure of the problems in the sport of basketball. The second a kid doesnāt get his touches, or get his reps, or get his shots, heās off to another team or another school. And now in the NBA weāre not surprised that they donāt know how to play as a team a week in?ā (Full Video Above)
Listen to Doug Gottlieb discuss USA Basketballās back-to-back shocking losses to Nigeria and Australia during pre-Olympic warmup games this past week, and detail his theory on why it represents a larger problem of the deteriorating basketball culture in the United States.
Check out the video above as Gottlieb straight up tells you why basketball culture in this country SUCKS.
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