For months, European fans have been shouting loudly that the Euroleague is getting closer and closer to the NBA in terms of the level of play.

A former player of the league gave his strong opinion on this hot topic, after the match between the United States and Serbia.

Before the start of the Olympic Games, Team USA was announced as the overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal.

How could it be otherwise, after all, when the Americans had assembled an absolutely terrifying superteam with legends of the game like Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant? The first days of the tournament proved this theory right.

Until the quarterfinals, nothing and no one seemed able to put the Americans in difficulty… and then Serbia landed in the semifinals, whom Steve Kerr’s men had swept in the group stages.

Nikola Jokic and his friends played 35 minutes of madness against the American giant, dominating head and shoulders until Team USA pulled off a five-star money time performance to win.

Former Monaco player Chima Moneke speaks frankly about the Euroleague

For a long time, LeBron & Co. were not faring well against the Serbian armada, which was almost exclusively made up of players who did not play in the NBA.

Avramovic, Milutinov, Petrusev, Guduric: all seasoned basketball players who have been known in the Euroleague for years.

Enough to push Chima Moneke, former Kings and AS Monaco player, to an analysis that would not please American Internet users.

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Very vocal about the differences between the United States and Europe, the Saski Baskonia player is an ardent defender of the Euroleague and therefore maintains that the level of competition on the Old Continent would be much higher than what the majority of US fans want to believe.

You only have to read the outraged reactions of the latter to realize that the power forward has touched a sensitive chord.

None of these countries could compete with NBA talent without their own NBA players.

Serbia has no chance without Jokic/Bogi, Germany without Schröder/Franz and the list goes on.

Europe has incredible talent, but the best are in the NBA for a reason.

Chima Moneke firmly believes that the Euroleague has nothing to be ashamed of when compared to the NBA in terms of talent and level of play.

When you see what Serbia did against Team USA, even if its main stars play in the US, the former Monaco player is not necessarily wrong.