Steve Kerr: ‘It’s not 1992 anymore’

For the second straight FIBA Basketball World Cup edition, the USA men's basketball team failed to capture the gold medal.

This, after the Americans bowed to the Germans, 111-113, in the semifinals at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday night, September 9.

Team USA PHOTO BY RIO DELUVIO

USA head coach Steve Kerr had a simple explanation for another unsuccessful gold medal bid of the powerhouse country — it's not 1992 anymore.

The days where USA just come in and bulldoze the competition are long gone.

“It just means the game has been globalized over the last 30 years or so and you know, these games are difficult,” said Kerr.

“This is not 1992 anymore. So, players are better all over the world, teams are better and it's not easy to win a World Cup or the Olympic games.”

The loss cuts deeper for the USA in the sense that it's the first time it lost to Germany in FIBA World Cup history. In the process, the Germans also advanced to the world meet finals for the first time.

A 35-point third quarter surge gave the Germans a rather sizeable cushion heading to the fourth quarter, where they answered the Americans' comeback attempts with big shots including that of Andreas Obst trey and Dennis Schroeder jumper down the stretch.

Germany set up an all-European final duel against Serbia on Sunday as USA got relegated to a bronze medal match against Canada on the same day still at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Can a program continuity help USA end its misery in the World Cup? While it's the ideal thing to do, Kerr said that such is an unrealistic thing when it comes to USA Basketball.

“I'm not how you would do that if you wanna ask the same 10 guys to play every summer. I think that's very unrealistic,” said Kerr.

“I love being part of USA Basketball, I think our players really enjoy it as well and part of the deal with USAB is you pass the baton on to the next coaching staff, the next group of players and it's different than most countries but we're unique in that we have a deep talent pool and a lot of worthy players and I think those players and coaches all deserve to have the honor of wearing this USA jersey.”

Magic expresses his disappointment

NBA and USA Basketball great Magic Johnson expressed his disappointment over the Americans' submission to the Germans in the semifinals.

“Just watched the USA Men's basketball team play Germany in the FIBA World Cup and I was very disappointed we lost 111-113. Now instead of playing for Gold we will be playing for Bronze,” Johnson said in a Twitter/ X post late Friday night.

Johnson, alongside fellow greats Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, was part of the 'Dream Team' that won it all for USA in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.