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    The N.B.A. Sees Its Future in Africa

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    The league has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to cultivate an immense potential fan base on the continent and develop future stars.On an outdoor basketball court surrounded by seashell-scattered sand last month, a man coached a group of teenage girls through a drill. The staccato pounding of their dribbles alternated in the hot air with a tinnier sound in the distance: men hammering nails into wood while a bleating white billy goat looked on.Listen to this article with reporter commentaryThe coach, Abibou Sall, 34, instructed his players to dribble along the sideline, first with their left hands, then their right. Don’t look down at the ball, he told them, wanting the girls to learn to trust their hands.Sall is a physical trainer for the Pikine Basket Club, which practices at the Jacques Chirac Center. About 600 children play basketball at this recreational center in Pikine, a suburb bordering Dakar. The youngest players, ages 6 to 7, are introduced to the game on mini hoops. The oldest are 18. Sall is also a die-hard fan of the National Basketball Association.It is a picture that would delight the N.B.A. — a devotee of its league teaching basketball to youngsters on a continent in which it sees tremendous economic opportunity.Recently, after finishing with his club duties, Sall had been staying up late to watch the playoffs — the games often start after 11 p.m. local time — even after his favorite player, LeBron James, was eliminated in the first round.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Short-Handed Americans Lose to Germany in World Cup Semifinals

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      The Americans, perennial favorites but without many top N.B.A. stars, were stopped short of the gold medal game. The team will look much different at the Paris Olympics.As the final buzzer sounded Friday night, the American players looked dejected. Hands on hips. Jerseys over faces. Sagging shoulders. Expressions of disbelief as they watched Germany’s players leap and hug in celebration at midcourt.Germany had shocked the United States, 113-111, in the semifinals of the FIBA World Cup in Manila. The United States, perennial gold medal favorites in this men’s tournament, looked a step behind the whole game, done in by a porous perimeter defense and a lack of rebounding. And Germany, led by guard Andreas Obst with 24 points and forward Franz Wagner with 22 points, had earned the biggest basketball win in German history.The loss on Friday served as a humbling status check on the U.S. men’s national program heading into the Paris Olympics next year. This was the first FIBA World Cup under the leadership of Steve Kerr, who has won four N.B.A. championships as coach of the Golden State Warriors. He has marquee assistant coaches, including Erik Spoelstra, who has won two N.B.A. titles coaching the Heat, and Tyronn Lue, who coached the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers to a championship.But on the court, there was far less experience. The World Cup does not hold the same prestige as the Olympic tournament, which meant fewer players were willing to spend part of their summer abroad after a grueling N.B.A. season. This roster did not feature a single All-N.B.A. player and was a combination of role players and up-and-comers. There were four total All-Star appearances combined (Tyrese Haliburton, Brandon Ingram, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Anthony Edwards). Only one player on the team had an N.B.A. championship, Bobby Portis.Germany repeatedly pummeled the United States in the paint, exploiting the United States’ choice to play with smaller lineups. Germany grabbed 12 offensive rebounds, compared with seven for the United States. It also shot well from outside, 13 for 30 from 3-point range.Germany outscored the United States by 35-24 in a pivotal third quarter, and maintained a double-digit lead for much of the rest of the game. But a late flurry by the United States, led by the forward Edwards, cut Germany’s lead to 3 points with just over three minutes left. Edwards led the Americans with 23 points but missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the game with two minutes left.Germany is the only unbeaten team in the tournament. It was the second loss for the United States, which had also been upset by Lithuania earlier this week.For the United States, the tournament did not attract many of the top stars from the N.B.A. But the team will almost assuredly look different for the Paris Olympics in 2024. This edition of the team will play only for a bronze medal against Canada, while Germany clinched a spot in the gold medal game against Serbia on Sunday.In the most recent tournament, in 2019, the United States had an even more disappointing run, failing to get a medal after a quarterfinal loss to France, after having won the tournament in 2014 and 2010. Before the loss to France, the United States had won 19 straight World Cup games.In many ways, the high expectations for the United States are of its own making. The standard was set by the 1992 team at the Olympics — the Dream Team led by Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing — and carried forward in subsequent Games, including the 2008 squad nicknamed the Redeem Team, which included LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony. For years, the Americans have been expected to romp through any and all international competitions.But as basketball has grown exponentially in other countries, the gap between the United States and the rest of the world has narrowed, meaning that if Americans aren’t sending their best players, they can no longer expect to glide to a gold medal.For the Olympics, the United States will still be a heavy favorite, and it is likely to have more perennial All-Stars. Stephen Curry, the Golden State star, has expressed an interest in joining the team in Paris.The past two World Cups have shown that stars of Curry’s caliber would be welcome for the Americans.“These games are difficult,” Kerr told reporters after the game. “This is not 1992 anymore.” More

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      3×3 Basketball Comes to the Games With a G.O.A.T.: Dusan Bulut

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      Since 2012, FIBA has organized six World Cup tournaments in three-on-three basketball. Dusan Bulut and his Serbian teammates have won four of them.TOKYO — It all started with “White Men Can’t Jump.”Dusan Bulut was 9 years old and channel surfing at home in Novi Sad, Serbia, when the street ball caper starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes appeared on the television. More

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      Why One American Basketball Team Won’t Be at the Summer Olympics

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      The U.S. invented basketball but does not dominate one form, three-on-three, when it comes to Olympics qualifying. So, go … Latvia?When three-on-three basketball has its Olympics debut in Tokyo this summer, Latvia will be there. So will Poland. But a men’s team from the United States, birthplace of basketball and winner of 15 of 19 men’s gold medals in the traditional five-on-five game, will not.The Americans were eliminated from a qualifying tournament in Austria on Sunday, 21-16, by the Netherlands.How did this happen?One clue is the American men’s roster. It consisted of Dominique Jones, Robbie Hummel, Kareem Maddox and Joey King. All were capable college players. All have honed their games in three-on-three play for several years in preparation for the Games. But they hardly represent the best players the U.S. could offer.Several factors prevented the U.S. from rolling out a threesome like LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. For one, the best N.B.A. players are currently in the middle of the playoffs.Still, even hustling together a group of stars from teams not in the playoffs would not have been possible. Hoping to promote its three-on-three tournaments around the world, the international federation, FIBA, mandated that Olympic hopefuls earn points in those events. Since they took place in the winter, all N.B.A. players and even most Americans playing for European teams were out.FIBA is aware of what it is doing. It hopes to build the game beyond merely the Olympics, so it demands participation in its other, lower-profile events. It also wants to have as many countries involved as possible. The U.S. men did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup either, though Andorra, population 77,000, did, in part merely for showing up.“Andorra has heavy participation every weekend,” an official explained at the time.The unforgiving nature of the qualifying tournament over the weekend didn’t help. The U.S. won its pool with a 3-1 record. But that only got them into the quarterfinals. The loss to the Netherlands eliminated them, since only the top three teams advanced to the eight-team Olympic tournament.Dominique Jones was on the U.S. three-on-three roster but it lacked the biggest names. Christian Ugarte/EPA, via ShutterstockIn the three-on-three game — or 3×3 as FIBA insists on calling it — baskets are worth 1 point. What would be a 3-point shot in the regular game is worth 2 points. The Dutch made four 2-pointers down the stretch to put the Americans away.“Obviously, it’s not the ending we wanted,” said Joe Lewandowski, who has the title of coach/adviser (coaching is not allowed during games). He is the head coach at Point Park University, an N.A.I.A. school in Pittsburgh. The traditional men’s five-on-five team has qualified and will be coached by Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs.Another American team in a very American sport will face its own challenge this week when men’s baseball sends minor leaguers to try to qualify for the Games.Kara Lawson of Duke coached the American women’s three-on-three team, which qualified for the Games with ease, finishing 4-0 in its pool, then beating Belarus, 21-10, and Spain 21-13. The winner is the first team to 21 points or the leader after 10 minutes. (Dawn Staley of South Carolina will coach the women’s five-on-five at the Games.)The women’s three-on-three roster has much more familiar names, all with W.N.B.A. experience: Allisha Gray of the Dallas Wings, Stefanie Dolson of the Chicago Sky, Katie Lou Samuelson of the Seattle Storm and Kelsey Plum of the Las Vegas Aces, a former No. 1 overall draft pick. Because the W.N.B.A. is a summer league, the opportunity was there to recruit some top players who were available to earn points at FIBA events in the winter.Those stars will now return to their W.N.B.A. teams. In contrast, the players on the men’s teams include a news producer and a development specialist.Though one spot is left in the men’s field at the Olympics, the U.S. is not eligible for it. In another quirky FIBA decision, that place is reserved only for nations that did not have a team in the 2012 or 2016 Olympic Games. So men from Mongolia, Hungary or Romania could be at the Games, while the nation of Wilt Chamberlain and Julius Erving watches from home. More