Don't You Dare Think Of Slandering Team USA On Myles Turner's Watch

OK so this is one of those weird situations where nothing Myles Turner said in this Twitter thread is technically wrong. With the NBA’s best players all opting to sit out FIBA, at least these dudes were willing to but their health on the line and actually compete. They deserve credit for that, absolutely.  At the same time, when you’re USA BASKETBALL and you come out and lose an exhibition game to Australia, then only get by Turkey because of a gigantic prayer of 4 missed FTs, then you lose back to back games to France and Serbia resulting in only being able to finish at best 7th, the internet is going to clown you. That’s just how things work. Nobody cares about the sacrifice that these guys made, nobody wants to hear about “disrespecting” those who participated because frankly they embarrassed all of us. You deserve to be called out when you play like Team USA played, there’s nothing wrong with that.

I don’t think people are questioning their heart, I think more people are questioning why the fuck they had the worst FIBA showing since 2002. Why Pop made certain rotation decisions that ultimately cost them games. Why the offense couldn’t stop with the isolation bullshit and looked pretty terrible for long stretches. You aren’t absolved of criticism just because you were willing to do something a bunch of NBA players decided they wanted no part of.

And look, it’s not like this was the best showing for Turner either. He had his moments for sure, but Rudy Gobert ate that ass alive, and he wasn’t that much better against Serbia today. There’s a reason Pop relied so heavily on his small ball lineups and had Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown playing center consistently. Team USA had an opportunity to prove a lot of people wrong who talked about how bad this team was, and they did the exact opposite. If anything they came out and confirmed those takes. When that happens you just have to take it on the chin, knowing that what we just witnessed is not exactly what fans are used to when it comes to international basketball where the US has been absolutely dominant as of late.

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I will say, it does look like members of Team USA are getting a little feisty with this whole thing, just last night we had Donovan Mitchell taking to Twitter with similar beef

and I think I’m not alone in thinking it’s time for this whole FIBA disaster to just be done with. Hopefully everyone comes out 100% healthy and we can set our sights to the start of training camp. What shouldn’t happen is the players taking to Twitter to clap back at the trolls and haters. That NEVER ends up well. Just take it on the chin and we can all collectively forget this tournament happened.