Despite being heavy favorites to win the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China, the United States fell to France by a score of 89-79 earlier today. Rudy Gobert absolutely torched the Americans and had one of the best games of his basketball career. The Utah Jazz star is known as a defensive force in the league and people are finally starting to take notice of what he's truly capable of. The loss came as a huge shock to basketball fans everywhere and now, USA Basketball is going to have to reassess their strategy heading into the next tournament.
After the game, head coach Gregg Popovich was tasked with answering for his team's performance. At one point, Pop got frustrated with reporter Tim Reynolds and basically told him not to quit his day job. Clearly, Pop was not amused.
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Realistically, the team didn't have the best American players in the world and was limited by the talent out on the court. Had some of the bigger names played, they probably would have gone much further.
Now, the Americans will have to shift their attention to the Summer Olympics in 2020 where they will try to defend their gold medal title from 2016. Surely they will be able to get all of their stars back for the Olympics.
