The rest of the world may have improved drastically when it comes to basketball, but that has not changed Charles Barkley’s expectation for Team USA.
Barkley joined Wave Sports show “Podcast P with Paul George” for an episode that was published on Monday. During his interview with George, Barkley explained why he still expects the United States team to win a gold medal.
Barkley acknowledged that some great players such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic play for foreign countries, but that still doesn’t change that the U.S. has the best depth.
“We still got the next 10 best players in every game. Well probably 12. So this notion that yeah, the international teams, they have gotten better. They are, but we still got the best players in the world. When we go to our bench, there’s nobody bringing a Jayson Tatum or Jrue Holiday or [Tyrese] Haliburton or Derrick White. Those foreign teams ain’t bringing no dudes off the bench that good. I guarantee you that,” Barkley said. “Listen I don’t even know every country, ain’t nobody bringing nobody off the bench better than Jayson Tatum okay? Ain’t nobody bringing anybody off the bench better than Kevin Durant. So this notion, yeah, the international teams have gotten better, but there’s never an excuse for the United States not to win the gold medal. We got the best team, we got the best players by far.”
Barkley makes a great point. When it comes to the strength of the roster from top to bottom, other countries cannot compare to the U.S.
The knockout portion of the tournament begins on Tuesday at the Paris Olympics. The U.S. will face Brazil in the quarterfinals. Should they advance as expected, they are set to face the winner of the Serbia-Australia game in the semis on Thursday.
