One of the reasons why the USA is the best basketball country in the world is their endless list of talented players. Every year, many promising talents affirm themselves in the NBA, dreaming of being the successors of national team superstars such as LeBron James or Kevin Durant.
For national team coach, Mike Krzyzewski and chairman, Jerry Colangelo this situation is both incredible and overwhelming, as they have to choose between so many talented players to make the final squad for every competition.
Coach K and Colangelo’s success – including two consecutive Olympics titles in 2008 and 2012 and two gold medals at the 2010 and 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup – is partially due to the presence of some emerging talents on the team alongside superstars such as Houston Rocket’s James Harden and Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry.
One of Team USA’s biggest revelations this summer was Denver Nuggets’ Kenneth Faried.
Selected on 2014-2016 Team USA’s 28 players pool, the former Morehead State student made the cut to the final roster for last summer’s FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.
“I worked hard to be part of the team and I will never forget the day when they announced the final roster. I was excited and very happy”, Faried told FIBA.com.
Starting at the power forward position and sharing the frontcourt with New Orleans Hornets’ Anthony Davis, “Manimal” averaged 12.2 pts and 7.7 rbds per game during the tournament and helped team USA reach the world crown.
“Winning the World title is huge. We played at an amazing level during the whole tournament and we shown that we have the best team in the world”, he said.
“Everybody thought that our roster was too young and inexperienced, but we were confident in our game. We had a very intense training camp and we kept being focused game after game to reach our goal, the gold medal”.
Playing at an incredible level during the tournament, the power forward has been selected in the All-Tournament team alongside his teammate Kyrie Irving, Serbia’s Milos Teodosic, Spain’s Pau Gasol and France’s Nicolas Batum.
“It was an honour for me to be chosen in the best team of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup”, he stated.
“It was a bit different to play under FIBA rules, but I got used to them pretty quickly. I felt very comfortable and in great shape during the tournament. I was happy being able to play well game after game”.
Faried had a great experience in Spain, inside or outside the court.
“Playing at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the best experience in my career so far. I learned so much about basketball and I think that I improved a lot by taking part in a competition like that. Being around all those superstars and being coached by Mike Krzyzewski was incredible”, he admitted.
“It was nice to compete against some of the best players and national teams of the world. It was also great to participate in that competition and spend those weeks in Spain. The fans were great and we had a nice time being there”.
In spite of having great performances during the tournament, Faried has not yet a spot secured on the roster for the following competitions, including the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, he is looking forward to wear the national team jersey again.
“I really enjoyed playing for the national team last summer. It would be great to have other opportunities to do so and I am going to keep working hard to be part of the team in the future”, he said.
“One of my dream is to go to the Olympics. This is probably the biggest competition in the world and it would be an amazing experience to be on the team that will go to Rio”.
But before that, Faried is expected to help the Denver Nuggets grow and come back under the spotlight.
By signing a five-year, 60 million dollars contract extension, the power forward is now the new face of the Colorado based franchise.
Unfortunately, the Nuggets have been struggling since last season and are currently having one of the worst records of the Western conference with just 4 wins to 7 losses.
“We are not where we would like to be right now. There are some games where we haven’t played well and we are still working on finding a good chemistry between us on the court”, he admitted.
“I think that we have a talented group of young players and have the potential to be a great team very soon. We just need to keep working hard”.
“Last season was very frustrating for us. Now, our minds are focused on winning games and go to the playoffs”.
