Led by Evan Fournier, Rudy Gobert, and Nic Batum, France has defeated Team USA in their first basketball game of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This is USA Basketball's first loss in the Olympics since the infamous 2004 USA team.
As you all probably remember, the 2004 USA squad finished with a disappointing bronze medal. Manu Ginobili gave USA a 30 piece and along with Luis Scola and Andres Noicioni, led Argentina to their first gold medal in basketball. Although being regarded as a weaker USA team, they were still led by 2 MVPs in Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson.
Despite the proclamations from r/nba that "world fucked", Team USA appears to be very much beatable, having dropped exhibition games to Australia and Nigeria and now a real one to France. Of course, those that follow international basketball knew the USA was vulnerable when they finished 7th at the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
USA still plays the Czech Republic and Iran, both of which are guaranteed wins. The top teams in other groups (Australia, Spain, Slovenia) will almost certainly try to tank games to avoid the possibility of playing USA in the first round, as the group winners and 2nd place finishers in each group are randomly paired for the knockout stage.
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