While Team USA has dominated basketball's world stage for years, Canadian player and soon-to-be NBA star, RJ Barrett suggests Team Canada has all the tools to beat the United States in the future.
“I’ve beaten the USA twice in my lifetime, so they’re beatable,” Barrett told Dime Magazine’s Bill Difilippo. “I feel with all the great players we have, a whole bunch of NBA players now, they have experience. So it’s really going to be a fair game, and I think we can take them,” he said.
The players Barrett is referring to are names like Jamal Murray, Andrew Wiggins, Cory Joseph, Tristan Thompson, Kelly Olynyk, Dillon Brooks, and Dwight Powell. The group is young, talented and poised to make the Canadians a force in international basketball for a long time. Barrett may be the most talented among them.
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A current player set to suit up for Duke this season, Barrett is one of the most-watched players ready to make the jump to the NBA. He's a stud and at 6-foot-6, he's a big guard/wing that can handle, get his own shot and set-up his teammates. He's got his eyes on both joining the NBA and being part of the group that creates more winners than just the U.S. in the Olympics.
He may know what he's talking about too.
Barrett helped defeat Team USA with a 38-point performance in the semifinals of the 2017 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup and helped lead Canada to a gold medal. “Everyone wants to beat Goliath,” he said. “Definitely for them, I feel like they’re on notice, so let’s do it. We beat them, so they’re worried about us doing it again.”
Team Canada becoming a winner would be seen as a big change on the International Basketball circuit. In 19 Olympic tournaments, the men's USA basketball team has finished with a Gold medal 15 times. Team USA has won three-straight tournaments and won medals in every showing since 1980. They are FIBA's top-ranked team in the world — and for good reason.
That said, Barrett believes if any team can take out the United States, it's the Canadians. And, the way things are shaping up, he doesn't believe they'll be underdogs either.