It's About Time John Wall Got A Fair Shot To Represent Team USA
It’s about time we got Coach K out of here and give John Wall a fair shot at making the Team USA roster. I mean, of course a Duke guy wasn’t going to pick a Kentucky player who grew up in Carolina. Talk about bias a little bit. Probably had nothing to do with guys like Steph Curry, James Harden or healthy Derrick Rose.
Wall has been pretty open about his desire to play for Team USA though and how he felt he never got a fair shot because of allegiances or the fact that once players play for Team USA they get first dibs. The one argument he has is the 2016 Olympics and making it over Kyle Lowry or if they decided to take another guard to the 2014 World Cup instead of a Plumlee.
Here’s what Wall said back in 2016:
He was even more blunt back in 2014:
I mean, I love hearing things like this just because it shows that guys want to play for Team USA. The 2016 Olympics were a bit weird because we saw so many big names pull out of the Olympics for various reasons. I enjoy watching us send our best team – like we did in 1992, 2008, 2012, etc – and see the best of the best play together. Countries across the world are getting better and better each year, whether it was Argentina and Spain in the past, Lithuania is always a solid team, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia are all getting better.
We’re starting to get closer to seeing these guys playing games again as we’re finishing up World Cup qualifying for the 2019 World Cup in China. Team USA had their minicamp in Vegas a month ago. I am curious to see what sort of team Pop puts together for his first team. There’s plenty of depth, especially at the guard position, but it’s always interesting to see who decides they want to play – especially in the World Cup compared to the Olympics.