It's hard to tell whether the recent FIBA World Cup showcased how awesome international basketball is or if it showed how far it all still has to go. Team USA did what was expected of them after Spain were knocked out early, which will only serve as a reinforcement to the American perspective.

The NBA is clearly the biggest thing in world basketball, which unlike many sporting leagues around the world is on the back of local talent. This all means that Team USA are rightfully the best basketball team in the world, even if it is their B team ... it's probably even closer to their C or D team. Sure there are other international teams who are super good but this largely depends on the health and availability of their best players, who are usually from the NBA.

We simply can't expect to just place international hoops above everything else. We can't expect NBA teams to let anyone and everyone partake in international hoops, nah the NBA will always hold its place at the top. But we need something, we need some sort of direction to go, we need to know that international basketball is on the rise.

If we leave it up to the USA, we won't get anywhere. Their perspective on international basketball is heavily distorted by their place in international basketball - they simply don't care because, well their guys are the best. Why would you care when you know that your team isn't even rolling out their top team? And they still win gold?

There doesn't seem to be this desire to share , they just want it to themselves. The basketball world loves it because it's an opportunity to pull on your country's singlet and represent on the world stage. There seems to be quite a difference between the two perspectives - that of people like you and I who just want to watch the Tall Blacks do their best against the world's best and that of the average American punter who simply couldn't give shit ... unless their team's best player gets injured - imagine being a Pacers fan?

So, what? What do we do? Americans want either the Olympics or the World Cup to be an Under 23 comp, but that only applies to Team USA. They cite the Olympic football example, but who even cares about Olympic football!? They have the idea that Team USA can't send it's best team to both tournaments, I've even heard the idea of a one and done type of thing where a player can play one cycle (Olympics + World Cup), then he can't play again.

What was wrong with the way they approached this World Cup? It would be daft to expect Lebron James, Kevin Durant and Kevin Love to play, but as long it's left up to the individual. World basketball needs some love from the USA, we need to see some sort of investment or else we will keep travelling down two parallel paths - the world and the USA. We don't need to see the very best, all the time ... maybe it's better off that Team USA just keep to themselves?

Maybe I just want to see Americans thinking of other people, I dunno.