FIBA World Cup 2014: Easy Win Proves Team USA Still Miles Ahead of the World

Basketball has truly become a global game, but the United States is still king of the sphere. Despite the fact that every team considered to be a major threat to the U.S.'s gold-medal chances bit the dust, the Americans asserted themselves as the dominant team by cruising to the gold medal on Sunday.

When play in Spain began during the FIBA World Cup, all the talk was about a Spain-USA matchup in the gold-medal game. That never happened as Spain was upset by France in the quarterfinals. The fact that the host Spaniards fell to a French team without Tony Parker and Joakim Noah speaks volumes about the team's inconsistency.

Anything can happen, but it's hard to fathom Team USA falling to a squad like that. 

Briefly, there was a question as to whether the French could give Team USA the challenge most expected would come from Spain. That never happened as Serbia took down France in the semifinals.How could a squad that just defeated Spain in their own country lose to Serbia?

While mayhem ensued on the other side of the FIBA World Cup bracket, the Americans kept coming away with blowout wins. The string of lopsided wins leading into the gold-medal game proved that parity only exists between the other nations.

Even with a squad that didn't have the transcendent presence, the U.S. made it look easy.

In Sunday's 129-92 win over Serbia, Team USA continued its dominance. Previous Olympic, World Cup and World Championship failures have motivated the Americans to always put their best foot forward in international competition.

Per FIBA.com, the Americans averaged a tournament high 104.2 points per game. They were the only squad to shoot 40 percent from three-point range and 50 percent from the field, and no other team was even close to Team USA's efficiency rate of 1146.

This group, without the likes of LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul or reigning MVP Kevin Durant, proved that the United States doesn't have to send its best players to down every other nation on the hard court.

When the Americans are able to send over the third or fourth best collection of talent the country can provide, it shows just how much better the U.S. is when its athletes are plugged in.

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Jerry Colangelo has done an excellent job as director of Team USA basketball. He's hired capable and talented coaches in Mike Krzyzewski, Monty Williams and Tom Thibodeau. Perhaps most importantly, Colangelo and the player-selection committee have done a great job tagging players who understand the importance of committing to the program.

This proves that when the Americans truly put together a cohesive unit, they still stand head and shoulders above the rest of the world.

The versatility and depth on this B-level roster allowed the Americans to cruise to a 37-point win in the gold-medal game. Young budding stars like Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson all sacrificed their own offense throughout the tournament for the betterment of the team.

If the same level of commitment had been shown, and Durant, James, Paul and others had participated, would the wins have been even more impressive?

You never can tell, but we do know that Team USA left no doubt as to which team deserved the top podium spot in Spain. As long as the same buy-in is shown during the 2016 Olympic Games, we should see yet another gold-medal performance.