Steve Kerr riles up Team USA before Olympics clash vs. Nikola Jokic
Steve Kerr riles up Team USA before Olympics clash vs. Ni...
By Jay Postrado July 25, 2024 17:31
The past few weeks, despiting retaining an undefeated record, Team USA has struggled. They had very close calls against Germany and South Sudan which were not at all a good look for the upcoming Paris Olympics. A lot of vitriol has been hurled towards different guys on the team for relegating duties in the clutch to LeBron James. While the decision to make the 39-year-old take over in crunch time has been effective, Steve Kerr wants more.
Clearly, the world has caught up to Team USA in terms of talent. It is a testament to how global the game has been. There’s no greater proof of that than Nikola Jokic out of Serbia. The two-time Most Valuable Player just also so happens to be the first challenge that Steve Kerr’s squad will encounter in the Paris Olympics. So, the head honcho had a very stern reminder to his players before entering the first game of their campaign.
“That's what today is about. It's the reminder. It's time. We're here. So it's got to be 40 minutes of force and attention and focus, and we can't let teams outplay our effort. Energy-wise like we did the other night against Germany like we did against South Sudan,” Kerr said according to ESPN.
Team USA is now in Lille in preparation for the tournament. However, the past five exhibition games are apparently not representative of what this squad is capable of.
"We have another level. I think we have another two levels that we can get to, but it's a collaboration always. So we can show the strategic stuff on the tape walk-through. We can show them, 'Let's do this, let's do that. Let's learn personnel.' We got to know the shooters, know the non-shooters, all that stuff. So that's where we can help them. Where they can help themselves is just effort and energy play after play, after play. This is different,” he concluded.
After Jokic and Serbia, Team USA will have to face South Sudan yet again. A matchup against Jose Alvarado’s Puerto Rico awaits them to round out their Olympics group stage battles.
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