Hoops without borders

 Bad news for you Flat Earthers out there: More proof has emerged that the Earth really is round.

A roundBALL, that is.

This upon the news that France -- France, for pity's sake -- beat the birthplace of buckets, the United States of America, in men's basketball at the Olympics yesterday, which never used to happen. Used to be, the US of A would beat France like a three-egg omelet in basketball, and everyone else, besides. It would be the Stars and Stripes 115, France 47 all the way to the gold-medal game, when the Soviets would lose 95-72 except for that one time when the timekeepers gave them three chances to make the score come out in their favor.

And who forget the monumental farce that was the original Dream Team, which crushed everyone in Barcelona in '92 in the least impressive crushing-of-everyone in the history of games?

Well ... a few years have passed since then. And now any listing of the best basketball players in the world includes Slovenians (Luka Doncic) and Greeks (Giannis Antentukounmpo) and Serbs (Nikola Jokic).

It's an international game now, basketball is, just the way David Stern intended it to be. And so, yes, the US of A is going to lose to France every so often.

I don't know why American commentators who should know better are so shocked by this. But to hear them talk after France whipped the U.S. the other day, it was a major catastrophe for U.S. hoops, and an indictment of Greg Popovich's stewardship of the American side.

But this is an American team that lost to Nigeria and Australia. And the loss to France was the first Olympic loss for the Americans since 2004, when Larry Brown's disastrous tenure as Olympic coach ended with a bronze medal. So it's not like the U.S. is suddenly, I don't know, Iran.

Whom the Americans play next.

And whom FanDuel sets as 37 1/2-point 'dogs.

Bottom line: The U.S. is still going to win a medal, probably a gold one. But if it doesn't, it won't be because the timekeepers gave the other team a couple of do-overs.