Scola !

lol I dont think Bogut would be starting... He would maybe be 3rd center

I think your forgetting a healthy bogut is the best centre in the nba behind dwight and Bynum. Defensively would get the nod . but marc gasol would be his only competition.

Great idea Jacob, possibly the best idea ive heard in a long while.

Get angry.

USA by 15 are better in every position except maybe pf would be a great idea to bring into All star game

I think putting it into all star weekend would be pretty sick. Or maybe even at end of pre season NBA or post finals. OBVIOUSLY needs to work for all leagues around world.

Even if you just had it for nba based players still would be great. And bron i think defensively international's would be better and sneak a win .

You may be right Jacob I was just thinking that people are underestimating the Americans because they allowed some teams like australia and Lithuania to be competitive against them. I believe that against an opposition that the Americans know will really challenge them, they would bring their A game and prove how dominant they actually are.

Depends on the rules. NBA rules and they win. FIBA rules and it's tougher to call

I would have Penney in there before Shved if FIBA rules were in place.

I'd love to see it but it won't happen - the NBA & the owners won't go near anything where there's a sniff that the US might lose their super-hero image.

With the World Cup changing years from 2018 to 2019, it will be back-to-back with the Olympics, so there is potentially a gap in the year prior (2017) in this case for something like this to occur.

Imagine a best of seven series, 2-3-2 format, going something like New York, Paris, Madrid, London, Los Angeles. That would be awesome!

Another idea that has been floated is a FIBA Zone competition, where there are teams put together from their respective five FIBA zones. It would work similar to an Olympic pool, where each team plays each other once, and the top four go through to a medal round. So the whole thing wouldn't go much more than a week.

If nothing else, it would be a good excuse for us Aussies to finally recruit Kirk Penney!

America would be tough, as it would be the USA guys, plus the likes of Ginobili, Nash, Scola and Barbosa.

I don't mind the idea of the FIBA zone thing, but you have to split up North and South America IMO. Would make for a better tournament.

If it happened in the next one to two years you'd give the rest of the world some chance of getting a win... but Team USA would have to be favourites. They are so deep, Europe's and rest of worlds best (who are all better for playing in NBA) are now ageing eg Gasol, Parker, Ginobili, Kirelenko etc

As some have said, if you take the USA team from these games, take out the 3 least important guys say Hadden, Iguodala and the rookie from Kentucky perhaps one or two more ... add some of the great players who didn't show like Howmard, Wade, Rose, Bynum, Aldridge, Griffin to name a few ... it would really make these guys unstoppable. Rest of world doesn't have the depth at each position, the athleticism or skill. Sorry to all the europe lovers, the talent is still a way off... But its great for Basketball that they get closer all the time, come along way in 20 years or so

Interesting to see what the next gen of europe/ rest of world players will bring... I see the next worlds being competitive, but if USA send best or near best in Rio, can the world come up with some competition? Spain and Argentina would have to look different, perhaps Brazil would be top contender in home games? Agree that their frontcourt is very impressive and you've got love Heurtas,

Sorry I did forget to mention the Brazilian boys who were ultra competitive. Nicolas batum has a lot to work on but definately fits into that 3 spot with kirelenko and deng !

People talking about which USA team turns up - the same argument is for the internationals - if you take just the internationals from the olympics then yeah maybe US still win, but add bogut nash and dirk etc. you have a ball game .

VART that 2-3-2 format you have mentioned would be an absolute eye catcher. As we all know a series of games helps better determine who the better team actually is. having this every 2ns or so year wouldnt hurt I wouldnt think surely. The US team would sure as hell love to do it - all you hear about is how much they love the opportunity to play with each other, chris paul saying the other day it was the funnest time of his life !

And the europeans would love to show the americans who the real powerhouses of the basketball world are !

Im sure as hell that the NBA could see this as a markteting option, as said before " Its taking the world to beat us!"

David stern should stop trying to make the world champs into a world "cup" per say ! (a whole nother topic)!

And bring something like this to the world - something unique that not many other sports would have. the world cup would just be another steam roll for the US . Where as something like this would create some real interest. A world cup ? basketball doesnt have a big enough following for that !