Stephen A. Smith recently proclaimed that LeBron James should do everything in his power to help Team USA win the 2024 Olympics next year. As some fans might already know, Team USA shocked the world by being eliminated from the 2023 FIBA World Cup by Team Germany. Moreover, they failed to secure third place after losing to Team Canada.
Since many of us assumed that Team USA would be the overwhelming favorite to win it all, this unexpected loss caught several members of the basketball community such as Stephen A. Smith off guard. It also brought value to statements made earlier by a sprinter called Noah Lyles. He proclaimed that the NBA champions should not be called world champions since they do not face off against the best players from other countries.
Coming back to the issue at hand, Stephen A. appears to be quite unhappy with the fact that Team USA lost the FIBA World Cup. Since LeBron has already shown serious interest in representing the country at the 2024 Olympics, Smith urged him to use his connections and influence to the fullest. That said, let us take a closer look and find out more.
Stephen A. Smith wants LeBron James to recruit Kyrie Irving for Team USA
One of the major points of criticism against the recent Team USA squad was the fact that the team did not have the best players from the country. Instead, the roster was filled with young and rising stars. Although they certainly had the potential and talent, their lack of experience resulted in an unexpected defeat and elimination.
Since King James is at the back end of his career, many NBA experts feel that he will be participating in the Olympics next year. This makes sense considering it will almost definitely be his last. Stephen A. addressed LeBron directly and asked him to take the initiative and recruit other NBA stars for Team USA such as Kyrie Irving and several others.
“Get Steph Curry by the way, get Kevin Durant by the way get Klay Thompson by the way. Get Kyrie by the way. Yes, get Kyrie Irving to represent this country. What’s wrong with that? These are the kind of things you know you got to get back to the dream team and the redeem team. We got to bust people’s as*. You got to show them that, yo this is a different day. It ain’t like that. We still are who you thought we were.”
“Team Canada was led by Dillon Brooks… When LeBron James said what he said, that’s a beautiful thing… We gotta bust people’s a*s.”
Stephen A. Smith on The King playing in the 2024 Paris Olympics 👀👑
(via @stephenasmith)pic.twitter.com/WZYvyGtEte
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 13, 2023
Although the list of players that Stephen A. mentioned would certainly give Team USA a much better chance to win the Olympics, we should wonder if LeBron actually holds enough power to convince them to represent the country. Especially Irving who spent a lot of his life in Australia.
In any case, fans can expect the upcoming Olympics to be an opportunity for Team USA to redeem themselves. We look forward to seeing what they are capable of doing in Paris next year.
