Wed, September 11th, 2019

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Written while listening to A Tribe Called Quest's Luck of Lucien

In the end, Team USA indeed got its ass kicked

Only yesterday, we lived in a world in which Frank Ntilikina hadn’t beaten Team USA in a high-profile international tournament. Today, that world is no more. He and the rest of France beat Team USA this morning in Dongguan, China, 89-79, in the quarter-finals of the 2019 FIBA World Cup, ending USA’s plucky, teetering run; it was the team’s first non-exhibition loss since 2006. And now, with the USA out of the tournament, all the American stars who didn’t want to join the team and play for Gregg Popovich because they were too afraid to stamp their names on this roster for fear of losing can secretly rejoice in their glass houses built on fear and deeply-suppressed insecurity.In the game, France trailed by seven with as little as 7:30 left, then, shots like this from Ntilikina, a career 30.5 percent NBA 3-point shooter, started going in. (Nlitikina finished with 11 points and three assists. Watch the full highlights here.) USA led after three quarters, 69-63, and Donovan Mitchell had 29 points up to then. He didn’t score again. For France, Rudy Gobert finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds, and Evan Fournier, the guy whose been scoring in the NBA for bad teams for the last half decade, had 22. The US had won the last two World Cups, but it’s not like our guys have dominated the event; Spain won in 2006, and Yugoslavia took gold in ‘02 and ‘98. There will be a new winner this time, and it won’t be the team we’ve been hyping….That’s right! Argentina, led by 39-year-old Luis Scola, who washed out of the NBA in 2017, beat arguable tournament favorite Serbia in the quarterfinals, 97-87, yesterday. Similar to USA-France, Serbia held a lead going into the fourth quarter, but the Argentines took over late to earn a spot in the World Cup semis. This one was perhaps an even bigger upset than USA-France, though, because Serbia had a world-class player in Nikola Jokic and Argentina had a retired NBA player and, in our elitist American eyes, not much else. But, as Zach Lowe pointed out, Scola is a final holdover from Argentina’s ‘golden generation,’ led by Manu Ginobili, that won Olympic Gold in 2002. Maybe there’s some final 2002 magic going on with this team. 

What’s next for Team USA? 

We’ll finally get the fabled USA-Serbia matchup we hoped for going into this thing, only it’ll be for fifth place, not a spot in the finals. Those two will play Thursday at 7 a.m. EST. “May God help” Popovich, like the Serbian coach said, in this vaunted fifth-place matchup. 

So, who else is left? 

• Argentina and France will play in the semi-finals on Friday at 8 a.m. EST. 

• Spain, which beat Poland in the quarters, will play Australia, which beat Czech Republic in the quarters, on Friday at … wait for it … 4 a.m. EST. 

QUIZ:  Which country won the first FIBA World Cup, in 1950? Answer at the bottom.

About that headband ban

Woj, the founding member of the “ninja-style headband” beat, reported on Monday that the NBA’s Competition Committee decided to ban the stylish headwear for this upcoming season. Why? NBA spokesman Mike Bass:  “Teams have raised concerns regarding safety and consistency of size, length, and how they are tied which requires a thorough review before consideration of any rule change.”Laaaaaaaaaaame. Two things: This feels like much more of an NFL move than an NBA move.  If the league ends up reversing its ban, this could be a big marketing ploy for Nike.Here’s a Sports Illustrated article on how the headbands gained popularity, and here’s an ode to the outlawed accessory.

 Quick Hits 

• Kevin Durant gave a revealing interview to the Wall Street Journal. The article, which dropped yesterday, is behind a paywall, but here's a juicy quote on OKC:

• "The organization, the GM, I ain’t talked to none of those people, even had a nice exchange with those people, since I left.”

• This, as it often does, ended with KD beefing with Twitter eggs. 

• Mike Scott went to an Eagles game this weekend rocking a Sean Taylor-Washington jersey. You simply won’t believe what happened next. 

• Michael Jordan donated $1 million to the Bahamas for hurricane relief. 

• Blake Griffin was a featured member of the Comedy Central roast of Alec Baldwin, and he got pretty down and dirty.

• ESPN aired its Dennis Rodman 30 for 30 last night. You can watch it on the ESPN app. 

 Concrete Reads 

• On Darryl Dawkins: Manchild in the promised land [Inside Sports]

• The complicated evolution of Dennis Rodman [ESPN] 

 Podcast Pick

Doc Rivers and Erik Spoelstra join the Woj Pod [ESPN]