The FIBA world championship is an international basketball competition contested by the men’s national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation. Other than the Olympics, thishas been center stage for international basketball players to showcase their ability. This year, it was Team USA’s mission to win the FIBA World Cup and to represent our country as a whole.

It has been six years since team USA has won the prestigious World Cup. Before the competition began, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski (or “Coach K”) said he was very excited for the roster he put together. But there was an issue while putting the Team USA roster together: Oklahoma City Star forward Kevin Durant had withdrawn from the team. Combined with the loss of Indiana Pacers star forward Paul George to a gruesome leg injury, Team USA was short of two of their biggest players.

2014 MVP Kevin Durant withdrew from Team USA for the remainder of the summer. Kevin Durant explained to ESPN reporter Darnell Mayberry why he will not be participating with the USA Men’s National Team. “This was an extremely difficult decision as I take great pride in representing our country. I know that I owe it to my USA basketball teammates to be totally invested in the experience. After going through training camp with USAB, I realize I could not fulfill my responsibilities to the team from a time and energy standpoint. I need to take a step back and take some time away, both mentally and physically in order to prepare for the upcoming NBA season. I will be rooting USAB and look forward to future opportunities with them,” Durant said. No other player in the past four seasons played more minutes than Durant – if anyone deserved a break it was him. Team USA decided to replace Kevin Durant with Sacramento Kings star forward Rudy Gay.

Losing Kevin Durant was not the only setback for Team USA, they also lost three time all-star and Indiana Pacers forward Paul George after suffering a severe broken ankle injury in a Team USA scrimmage on August 16. Doctors say George broke his leg in two places. A few days later, George spoke out to the world saying, “[When the injury happened] it felt like gasoline was on my leg and someone lit a match.” Paul George is out indefinitely – not only did he miss the FIBA World Cup, but he also will miss the upcoming 2014-15 NBA season. Paul George was promised a spot in the 2016 Olympic Team making his injury a “minor setback for a major comeback.” Team USA was forced to go on without their two key players: Kevin Durant and Paul George.

Critics started questioning if team USA could even make it past the first two rounds, but the team proved those critics wrong lead by 2012 returning MVP Derrick Rose. The question still remained: can Team USA get past Spain who was favored to win it all? When France managed what had to be one of the biggest upsets in FIBA basketball history by defeating Spain in the semi-final of the World Cup 65-52, Spain was eliminated from the competition. After easily eliminating Mexico in the first round, and picking up the win in the quarter-finals against Slovenia, Team USA was set to head to the semi-final game against Lithuania. Thanks to Kyrie Irvin’s 18 points and James Hardens’ 16 points, the final score was 96-68 in favor of the USA. Team USA went on to the World Cup gold medal championship game against Serbia, with Team USA grabbed an easy win beating Serbia 129-92 thanks (largely) 2014 World Cup MVP Cleveland Cavilers star guard Kyrie Irvin’s 26 points. Team USA was once again King of the international basketball world and World Cup gold medalists. Kenneth Faried summed up the journey to winning the World Cup. “It kind of was, again, a smack to our face, saying the U.S. was sending the B-team to go play in the World Cup. Just because LeBron James’s not here, Kobe Bryant’s not here, Kevin Durant’s not here, doesn’t mean anything. We can step up and win the gold, too. That’s what we did tonight.”