Brian Windhorst has strong words for Charles Barkley's unrealistic USA expectations: "Just a misread"

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Charles Barkley were engaged in a stellar debate about Team USA’s campaign in the ongoing basketball event of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Boasting of a star-studded lineup headed by Steve Kerr, Team USA defeated Serbia in the semifinals. They have now set up a date with France in the final of the event, with the gold medal at stake.

While Team USA has had a flawless tournament thus far and are thoroughly unbeaten, France might as well prove to be their biggest challenge thus far. Regardless, Charles Barkley believes that despite the results, Team USA have not been at their best thus far, and can perform even better.

Barkley said Steve Kerr’s inability to rotate at the right times is a major reason that Team USA hasn't played as well as they can.

However, this ‘ease’ with which Charles Barkley expects Team USA to blow past opponents is not acceptable for Brian Windhorst. He claimed that Barkley’s comments were merely a ‘misread’ of the actual situation:

“I agree with Charles in that they are the best team and that they should win. I do not agree with Charles whatsoever in that they would not be tested. That is just a misread of the current state of the world of basketball. The US has been holding off the wolf at the door for the last two Olympics."

He added:

"Now the world is tremendous, and the way our players decide they want to use their summers, which is largely not to play for the national team except in the Olympic year, this is what we're going to have to do. We are going to expect to have to win games like this.”

Regardless, Barkley, an NBA legend himself, had claimed that Steve Kerr merely needs to use his depth better, in order to blow away opponents:

"They got the best team. They got - you know, they haven't used their depth the right way because the one advantage we had in '92, and they still have today, when they go to their bench, they're bringing in better players. He has not used his team properly. We should never be a debate on guys getting to play and not getting to play."

He added:

“Listen, you can put Jayson Tatum in an NBA game. He's going to be better than 99% of the guys already in the world, but especially guys who coming from a foreign country. So you just kind of keep your guys on a treadmill and keep them rolling around.”

Windhorst cited USA players’ reluctance to play for the national team in recent years, claiming that players from other countries have caught up to a great extent.

Brian Windhorst believes Team USA will be tested despite being at their best against France

Barkley and Windhorst both seemingly agreed that Team USA are the obvious favorites, considering the wealth of talent that they boast of. That has also turned out to be true with respect to the kind of tournament Team USA have enjoyed thus far.

Blowing away opponents right from the group stages, LeBron and company produced another scintillating display against Serbia in the quarters. It saw them come out trumps against a team led by 3-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic.

Now, they have set up a wildly entertaining finals date with none other than France, who boast of the likes of Victor Wembanyama, Nicolas Batum and Rudy Gobert.

Regardless, as things stand, Windhorst believes that despite Team USA boasting of better stars, the reluctance major players show to play for the national team is a major issue.

He believes that for the time being, Team USA might be the favorite for most international tournaments, which has also been true with respect to the Paris Olympics. But the situation has changed in recent years.

A range of other national teams have emerged as bonafide competitors, which might as well be even more true in the coming time.