The United States has cruised to the knockout round of the men’s basketball tournament at the Paris Olympics. The Americans won all three of their games in group play convincingly, and now, they’re set up nicely for a run to the championship game, as they would play Brazil in the quarters and either Australia or a Serbia team they already beat in the semis.
All of this is coming in a tournament that was billed as a potentially serious challenge for the United States, which has won gold in each of the last four Summer Olympics. Perhaps that will still end up being the case, but on the latest episode of Podcast P, both Charles Barkley and Paul George expressed their belief that the U.S. should be able to take care of business — and if not, Barkley said, something serious needs to happen.
If Team USA men’s basketball misses out on gold in the Olympics, Charles Barkley believes they shouldn’t be allowed back in the country
@ATT pic.twitter.com/wfeCDbVpCN
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) August 5, 2024
“Have the international teams gotten better? One-hundred percent,” Barkley said. “They still not better than the United States. You take away Joker, and Giannis, and Luka, all three guys are great, great players. Shai is great, also. But we still got the next 10 best players in every game. Ain’t nobody bringing nobody off the bench better than Jayson Tatum, ain’t nobody bringing anybody off the bench better than Kevin Durant. The international teams have gotten better, but there’s never an excuse for the United States not to win a gold medal. We got the best team, we got the best players, by far.”
George then identified Canada as a team that can challenge the U.S. due to their guards, but expressed his belief that they don’t have enough size. He said the inverse about France, which has great bigs but guards that really struggle.
“You can’t find teams internationally that can put it all together the way a USA team can,” George said. “If we’re locked in, there’s no shot that USA loses.”
“Listen, if they lose, we can’t let ’em back in the country,” Barkley replied. “We can’t. I told ’em, they can’t come back.”
I think that is a joke by the Chuckster, but frankly, I am not sure.