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That didn’t take long. Less than a week after Team USA finished 7th at the 2019 FIBA World Cup — sending the media into a panic that American basketball was in trouble (at the international level), was possibly under the wrong leadership, and would need substantial changes going forward — at least three stars have already committed to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Steph Curry and Damian Lillard committed in separate interviews over the last couple of days, and now Klay Thompson is on board, health permitting. (He will likely miss most of, if not all of the 2019-20 season after suffering a torn ACL in the 2019 playoffs.) It’s pretty safe to assume the commitments will rise as the next year goes by.
This is all just a continuation of what everyone who actually looked at the circumstances surrounding the World Cup instead of jumping to conclusions already knew: extenuating circumstances (injury, scheduling, timing, etc) led to a less talented squad than Team USA is used to producing at the World Cup, but the stars will show for the Olympics, and it didn’t require praying to the basketball gods that they would show next summer.
In other words, Team USA is fine, Gregg Popovich is fine as its coach, and everyone can relax now.