Team USA dominated the 2024 Olympics, but one former NBA star thinks the home crowd in Los Angeles won’t be enough to guarantee gold in 2028. Richard Jefferson dropped a bombshell prediction that has basketball fans questioning everything they thought they knew about American basketball supremacy.
Why Is Richard Jefferson Pessimistic About Team USA’s Future?
Jefferson recently appeared on “Road Trippin,” hosted by Alli Clifton, where he was asked to give a hot take. The former NBA player, who spent 17 seasons in the league, confidently claimed Team U.S.A. is not the favorite to win gold in LA. His statement caught both Clifton and Channing Frye off guard.
“The U.S. (men’s basketball team) will not win gold in Los Angeles, California. Boom.” Jefferson told his co-hosts.
“I’m not trying to piss people off,” Jefferson explained. “Did you see? It took a herculean effort for us. It took our greatest basketball players for us to beat a team that had one All-Star in Serbia and had no All-Stars in France. So for us to say, without KD, without Steph, without LeBron, without Embiid, without the Avengers, we would not have won the gold medal.”
The reality check comes despite Team U.S.A.’s gold medal victory in 2024, which featured standout performances from Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant. The United States has historically dominated Olympic basketball, winning 27 gold medals between the men’s and women’s teams.
However, Jefferson’s concerns center on the aging of America’s current superstars. He pointed out that Curry, James, and Durant, the top three performers in the 2024 Olympics, aren’t likely to play in 2028. Curry and Durant are already on the wrong side of their 30s, while James has already entered his 40s.
Despite fielding a star-studded roster in 2024, Jefferson emphasized that Team USA had to work hard for the victory, particularly in the semifinals and finals. The team overcame a 17-point deficit to win against Nikola Jokić-led Serbia in the semifinals. The final against a Victor Wembanyama-led France was also tough.
What Does the Future Hold for Team USA?
When Frye pointed out that the 2028 Team USA would likely include Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Paolo Banchero, Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, and Anthony Edwards, among others, Jefferson remained unconvinced.
“I’m not saying that the US can’t win. I’m saying if you look at a more developed Wemby [Victor Wembanyama], you look at the [Zaccharie] Risacher … I think France, in my opinion, when you talk about, not that they have the best basketball players in the world. Can they field a team of 12 players, France in three to four years, that will be on par with the US? Not collectively the basketball talent, we’re talking about the team.”
Jefferson identified what he sees as Team USA’s main problem: the absence of a dominant big man. He noted that Team U.S.A. always had dominant big men, like David Robinson, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, and Dwight Howard, on their Olympic teams. In 2024, it was Joel Embiid.
The issue, according to Jefferson, is that the current crop of dominant big men in the NBA is not American, but European. He believes that Jokić, Wembanyama, and Giannis Antetokounmpo are a notch above the big men the U.S. could offer.
