A basketball superpower like the USA has to show the world every single time why they belong at the top. Thus, the national team supporters did not well receive their recent humiliation in the FIBA World Cup 2023. As the return of LeBron James for the 2024 Olympics surfaces, JJ Redick criticized the exclusion of his stopper from Team USA.

Amidst the misery, the Los Angeles Lakers star may well be back in the national colors for the Summer Olympics. Acknowledging that Redick blasted the absence of one NBA star from the World Cup squad.

Who was that coveted LeBron James show-stopper?

The concept behind the team building for this edition of the World Cup was to give game time to a young core of the nation. That brought in one major drawback inside the roster, which was the lack of big men in the squad. Team USA fell short against the other top nations when it came to rebounding because of that.

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The NBA analysts thus highlighted this issue after the country secured fourth place and came back home without a medal. Due to this setback, the nation may send its best possible team to the next year’s Olympics, spearheaded by LeBron himself. Appreciating that initiative, JJ put the focus back on the previously mentioned problem and even provided a solution.

“Aaron Gordon,” he believed could have been Team USA’s answer to their rebounding struggles. He added, “Would have been great on this team,” emphasizing the importance of the 27-year-old who stopped James in the playoffs. In the Western Conference finals last season, the forward squared up the 4-time champion multiple times.

His efforts bore fruit as the Denver Nuggets whitewashed the Lakers in the series to eventually win the championship. Redick talked about exactly that as he said, “There’s enough guys that are USA representatives that could have filled out this roster”. After a tiring run to the finals, it was under question whether Aaron Gordon would have agreed but “maybe they didn’t even ask him”. This makes us wonder about one thing.

What if Team USA had more big guys?

Taking Team USA’s display in the World Cup into consideration, maybe JJ Redick was right to point out Gordon’s name. The NBA champion showed a different caliber in the post-season playoff run.

Averaging over 51% from the field goal percentage he had 6 rebounds per game in the play-offs. His defensive contributions gave the team better stability while allowing the offense to run freely.

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It’s all in the past now. Maybe Team USA has realized their mistake. That could be why they want to assemble a super team for the Olympics. Maybe they needed this setback, just for the world to witness yet another redeem team.