 Welcome back to the Sports Max Zone. Following Team USA's disappointing fourth-place finish out, the recently concluded FIBO World Cup, Lakers superstar LeBron James is reported to be seriously considering participating in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. According to the Athletic, which operates the sports department for the New York Times, 38-year-old James has contacted Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Jason Tatum and Draymond Green, who are all prepared to commit. But the Olympics isn't where Team USA needs to salvage pride, having won four successive gold medals, starting with the 2008 Games in Beijing. But there is a huge disparity between Team USA's performances at the Olympic Games and FIBO World Cup. Team USA have won medals in all 19 of the Olympic Games, they have qualified for including 16 gold, but of the 19 FIBO World Cups they have participated in, they have meddled in just 12, while winning only 5 gold. In fact, in the past 5 FIBO World Cups, Team USA have managed only two podium finishes. Okay, so let's take a look in 2006, third place, 2010. They were champions in 2014 champions again, 2019 7th place and in 2023 4th place. So all of this prompts the question. For a country that boasts the best league and best players, why is there a disparity in the levels of performance at the Olympics and FIBO World Cup? Well to help us answer, we turn to our basketball expert, Alistair Albert. Good afternoon Alistair, how are you doing? Good afternoon, doing okay and I hope you are as well. Thank you. So the question, the big question, what's the issue? What's the issue? It's a multi-layered issue with the United States I think, I think it was really good for you to kind of point out what that disparity is between them being a little more dominant on the Olympic side of things, but when it comes to the World Cup they tend to kind of teal off a little bit. What I kind of realized where it's kind of concerned, I think they put a little more stock and a little more prestige and honor into playing for the Olympic team because I think they think it's the larger competition, you know, there's more athletes trying to play for the Olympics rather from their perception rather than the World Cup for FIBO basketball. And even if you just look at how the teams are comprised of Olympic and World Cup basketball, the teams tend to, especially the gold medal-winning teams, there's an average of at least seven to eight All-Stars on those teams, the gold medal-winning teams, and all the other teams were kind of done a bit badly from the bronze medals and worse performances. They've usually just had about three All-Stars on that team. So it just means that in terms of, you know, the higher level stars from the NBA wanting to commit to play for those teams in those World Cup games, the commitment just isn't there. And of course, what goes into it, of course, is them kind of looking at, you know, body and physical recovery after the NBA season, wanting to challenge in the next season, getting into training camp, healthy and that sort of stuff. So you know, there's probably just not that big importance for them and the value the NBA sees in more than, of course, the international games. So I think that's probably one of the main differences, just the commitment of the talent level of players coming into the teams, competing in the World Cup and the Olympic games. Alastair, is there an issue as well regarding the rules and how the conditions of play are structured because the FIBA rules are a bit different from the NBA rules and maybe some discomfort in some of these NBA stars adjusting to the FIBA guidelines? And yes, that is true as well, you know. Some of the guys when they come into training camp, you know, when the 2008 redeem team came along and it was about Coach, Coach Kane, like I can't even pronounce it, but lastly, the Duke coach who won the gold medals in 2008 and 2012, Coach Kane, he and Jerry Colangelo was the president of the USA Basketball Association. They wanted commitments from their members like LeBron and Katie and all these guys to come in and play for multiple summers, leading up to the games that they were supposed to play in to get used to playing some of those rules and of course develop chemistry within the team. But like you mentioned, last year, there are a couple of things. There's like the tangible differences that the court for the FIBA games is a little bit shorter. It's a 91.9 feet by 49 feet court, whereas the NBA, it's a 94 feet, 94 foot court by 50 feet wide. There's a physical difference with the ball as well. Having played with both NBA basketball and molten basketball as you use over here in Europe as well, you know, you could feel a difference. You know, it's a little slicker on the FIBA world ball, the ball that has been used for those games. And if you see your hands get a bit sweaty, the balls slipped out of your hands quite a lot. There's goal-tending differences, which is a huge one for the US, especially because when the ball is on in the NBA, when the ball is on its downward trajectory after a shot, you're not allowed to interfere with it, especially when it's on the rim. You have to kind of see it come off the rim to be able to rebound it. In FIBA basketball, once the ball is on the rim, you could sort it out, you could get it off the rim and everything, which incentivizes big man play. And one of the things we've seen in the FIBA World Cup over the years and in international basketball for the USA is them having to contend with, you know, bigger, stronger centers who are really skilled at getting the ball off the rim a lot quicker than they are and kind of lead into a lot of the rebounding disparities. So these are some of the things that they have to contend with, fouls. It's five fouls to be disqualified rather than six in the NBA, technical fouls, etc. So there are quite a few things, rule changes that they do actually have to really adjust to. And what Coach K was really good at doing was getting the guys to come in of multiple summers committing to that, to try to understand the rules. So there's just no slippage in when they play those international players. And what happened with this team this year was a team that was just assembled really quickly, kind of felt really first come first serve and they didn't have an opportunity to play together and really understand the rules together a lot more, like the other teams who play within that system, you know, most of the time. Yeah, you know, when the Paris Olympics are on next summer, Alistair, which Sportsmax will be carrying live, LeBron will be a few months away from his 40th birthday. I know whenever all these NBA stars play for the USA and the Olympic Games, they label the team the dream team. They always label it the dream team. But even more so when there is a plethora of numbers as far as NBA stars are concerned. So what do you make of a near 40 year old LeBron feeling enthusiastic about playing in the Olympic Games? Well, that would have seemed like a very strange thing to say at a 40 year. What you tend to see a lot with those guys who are really old, it's usually for the teams like elsewhere in the world, like I think was the Iranian team this year. I can't remember his first name, but had a D. I think it's a surname, you know, recently just retired in his last game playing for Iran. And he's about 40 years old and it's Argentina. You have Louis Scholar, who's played for quite a long time and retiring, you know, in his late 30s and 40s as well. It's it's teams and countries that have to rely on very limited resources and capable talented players, you know, to fill out their team. And those who tend to have the most experience as well for the USA. There's a plethora of talent, like we say, but LeBron James is still playing at really high level elite, you know, basketball, you know, so far, of course, the Olympics are a year away. We don't know what's going to happen with this season, how his body will hold up, how healthy you will be. But, you know, it's really interesting to see him wanting to rally the troops and do a little bit of LeGiemming as you know, some people would say, you know, wanting to try to assemble a team himself. It will be really interesting for me to see how Grant Hill, the new president of the USA, USA Basketball Association kind of deals with that because I think Grant Hill would want to kind of put his stamp on the steam rather than LeBron doing his usual thing of picking his all stars to represent the team that he's on. What's for sure Alistair is it will be good fun for us to watch because we love basketball. But for the teams that go up against this star-studded cast, of course, if it comes to pass, it'll be dangerous for them. Oh yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be crazy. And, you know, they're even trying to recruit Joellen Veed, who is from Cameroon, who has French citizenship as well. So, you know, if this team comes together with the size and the talent that they're going to have, the all-star level play, you know, like we said, you know, if you have at least seven to eight all-stars in the team, they usually tend to win. So, if they could assemble that cast, it would be a very, you know, a hard fight for the rest of the world. Yeah, well, Alistair, as always, we enjoy chatting with you. NBA will be here soon. And, of course, it lives on the home of champions. So, you'll be back on as regular as you normally do. That's it. Let's go see you guys soon. Yeah, chat soon. Thank you so much. All right, it's break time on the sports back zone.