International hoop dreams: Is the world catching up to Team USA in Olympics competition?

The world is coming for USA Basketball , and that feeling spans generations.

Canada’s team at the 2024 Olympics boasts 10 current NBA players, while Australia has nine and France five. Ten of the 12 countries that qualified for the Games have at least five players with NBA experience.

In June’s NBA draft , the numbers were just as striking. Twenty of the 58 players selected were foreign-born, with four Frenchmen taken in the first round, including the top two picks.

Hours before Team USA’s Olympic debut, over 100 current and former University of Akron basketball players were among the crowd of 240 gathered at the Student Union ballroom on July 27 for a reunion and celebration. Leonard Paul, a Little All-American during his time at UA from 1969-73, and Brian Walsh, who played two seasons and captained the Zips’ 2013 NCAA Tournament team , weren’t confident in the Americans’ chances.

Team USA will open medal round play at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday against Brazil. The semifinals will be Thursday (11:30 a.m. or 3 p.m.) and the gold medal game is at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

“We could have trouble in this Olympics,” Paul, 74, drafted in the 11th round by the Detroit Pistons in 1973 and a semi-pro player into his 40s, said that Saturday night. “They’ve got all the weapons. No team is going to have better talent, but that doesn’t always equate to winning. They’ve got to take it upon themselves to do whatever it takes. It’s going to be a struggle.”

Walsh, in his third season as an assistant coach at Indiana University and his eighth with the Hoosiers program, said he doesn’t expect the U.S. to win the gold medal.

“I don’t,” Walsh said. “You look at the NBA, you look at Luka (Doncic of Slovenia), you look at Joker (Nikola Jokic of Serbia), some of the best players are all coming from across the pond. I think their skill is a little bit superior to some of our guys. Our athleticism is better.”

Doncic and Slovenia didn’t qualify for the Olympics, but the talent-laden U.S. roster has been compared to the 1992 Dream Team. As Kevin Durant and LeBron James led the U.S. to a 110-84 victory over Serbia on July 28, NBC analyst and basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade acknowledged how good the world is now.

“It’s a different day,” Wade said during the broadcast.

Wade also mentioned the challenge for his former Miami Heat and Cavs teammate James and the rest of the U.S. squad because it has not played together much. That’s what concerns Paul, especially because of the international style of basketball.

“They play more team ball. I think they probably shoot better,” Paul said of the foreign competitors. “The United States … these guys only practice together a little while and it’s hard to break habits.

“Basketball is a game of repetition, and you can’t break that repetition habit overnight. I don’t even know if you can break it in 30 days of practice. You’ve got to work at it. We’re talking about (U.S.) guys who are not only the best players in the world, but they feel they’re the best players in the world, so they may be less inclined to compromise. They all want the ball.”

UA coach John Groce has brought in foreign players in recent years, including Sammy Hunter (Nassau, Bahamas), Prince Mosengo (Congo) and Aziz Bandaogo (Senegal). The Zips’ 2024-25 roster includes transfer James Okonkwo from Maidenhead, England, who spent time at West Virginia and North Carolina, where he became the third English-born member of the Tar Heels.

Asked if he believes the Europeans are catching up to the U.S., Groce said, “I do. I think there’s less of a gap than when I first started 30-something years ago. I think basketball has become more popular. The amount of kids that are training at a young age worldwide, I think it’s made them better.”

Groce marveled at 10 members of the Canadian Olympic team currently playing in the NBA — “Isn’t that incredible?” — and at the foreign dominance in the NBA Draft — “Isn’t that unique?”

“I think the game’s become truly universal,” Groce said. “There are good players all over the world. For us to think that they only exist in the United States would be arrogant.”

Former UA coach Keith Dambrot , who retired in March after seven seasons at Duquesne, said Friday that new Dukes coach Dru Joyce III brought in a player from the Czech Republic through contact with an international agent. The 2024-25 Dukes also have players from Slovakia, Brazil and Benin, a country in West Africa.

“Coaches that we know, agents, scouting services, film, there’s so many ways to see kids now,” Groce said.

“There’s a lot of untapped potential coming out of Europe,” said Walsh, who also served as recruiting coordinator at Indiana. “AAU basketball, we’re all kind of plucking the same kids and that’s kind of opened up a new door.”

Loren Cristian Jackson , a UA point guard for three seasons from 2018-21, has played in Europe since he left the Zips. He said he believes the U.S. team that won gold at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona inspired the world’s hoop dreams.

Jackson said Europe is catching up.

“One hundred percent," he said. "And you can thank Michael Jordan and the Dream Team for that. If they never went over to the Olympics and played against those guys and all these coaches that go overseas and do these clinics. ...

“The game is evolving and expanding, and that’s what we want. I still think Americans are the better players, more athletic, but the Europeans are catching up and they’re working. We’ve got to step our games up as well. That’s all it takes.”

Hall of Fame coach Bob Huggins , who directed the Zips from 1985-89, understands why Team USA may have its doubters now.

“It’s a different game,” Huggins said. “When we go over there it’s hard for us because it’s an entirely different style of play. When they come over here, they struggle because they don’t play the way we play.”

But Huggins wouldn’t agree the Americans could be in for a tough fight.

“We haven’t lost yet, have we?” Huggins said.

Loren Cristian Jackson bound for Poland

Jackson will head overseas on Aug. 23 to play for Czarni Slupsk of the Polish Basketball League. Jackson said his coach, Mantas Cesnauskis, has big plans for the 5-foot-7 guard.

“Most of the teams, I’ve been a part of it, but this coach wanted to build around me and give me the keys,” he said. “Hopefully I can do right by them and that fan base.”

Jackson has previously played in France (for Chorale Roanne Basket and BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque), Montenegro (SC-Derby) and Poland (Legia Warsawa).

Now up to 145 pounds from his UA weight of 130-135, Jackson received some inspiration at the banquet.

“Two of my years were cut short due to COVID,” he said. “Seeing the older guys, Len Paul saying, ‘I watched you all the time. You were once of my favorite players.’ That’s exciting.

“That’s what I do it for, to impact lives and do something that most people say … not a lot of people my size are able to do the things I’m able to do.”

Jackson has received advice from fellow Zips who went to Europe like Joyce and Romeo Travis, but Jackson hasn’t given up his NBA goal. He was thrilled that Mid-American Conference player of the year Enrique Freeman was drafted in the second round by the Indiana Pacers in June.

“It’s always my dream to get a chance,” Jackson said. “I’m just happy we’ve got guys about to do it right now, Enrique is able to do it. I’m going to keep grinding away at it. If my chance comes, I’m going to make the best of it.”

If not, Jackson will enjoy delighting crowds overseas. The Chicago native lives in Bradenton, Florida, but took his family, including Akron-born daughter Kia (3) and son Koda (1), to Poland last year.

“My kids have more passport stamps than I had when I was their age,” he said. “Just seeing the world, getting different cultures and broadening my horizon and meeting new people … I’m glad I got a chance to do it. God-willing my legs still work for a long time because I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: International hoop dreams: Is the world catching up to Team USA in Olympics competition?