The Team USA is scheduled for a head-to-head game against the Team Czech Republic at 8:30 P.M. on September 1, 2019 live from the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, Shanghai, China.
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Group E will make its first stride as the 2019 FIBA World Cup continues this afternoon in China. For its initial bout, it’ll feature USA and Czech Republic.
No LeBron James nor Stephen Curry nor James Harden and other shining NBA names in the roster of USA head coach Greg Popovich in this year’s edition of FIBA World Cup.
According to many basketball pundits, the usual “fear factor” carried by the American squad as they beat their opponents by a hundred point margin is no longer there.
That only means that the 2019 Basketball World Cup is now a free-for-all where anything can happen.
Yet, for USA guard Kemba Walker, this kind of situation isn’t new for most of them as they have experienced the same low expectation in their playing career.
“I think a lot of us have grown up with doubt coming into our careers,” Walker said. “It’s nothing new to us. That’s unnecessary at this point. Nobody really cares what people think. At the end of the day, we want to win. We have one goal: We want to win the gold medal. And we want to be here.”
For the Czech Republic, on the other hand, Tomas Satoransky who is a member of the Chicago Bulls, they’re grateful that they’ll be meeting the defending champion in their first game.
“They are so quick and good. I think that it is a great thing that we are going to play our first game of the tournament against them. Facing the best team in the world is a great opportunity to know our level of competitiveness,” Satoransky noted.
Likewise, they don’t want to get intimidated but only give respect to all of their opponents in the tournament and expect that they’ll give whatever they have to win games.
“You never know how the first minutes are going to be like. One of the strongest things of America is that they intimidate a lot of opponents. Of course, they deserve respect. You can not be intimidated by anyone and you just have to fight, and give whatever you have. You got to give them respect but can’t be intimidated,” Satoransky said.