Image Source: Agencies

Serbia have the chance to claim their biggest win in 21 years. Canada is chasing its first medal at a major global tournament in 87 years. Germany is one win away from its greatest basketball achievement of all time. And then there's the United States, playing for bronze.
The Basketball World Cup -- a 32-team championship played in three countries over the past 2.5 weeks -- concludes with medal games in Manila on Sunday. It's a pan-European final with Germany (7-0) facing Serbia (6-1) and an all-North American game against Canada (5-2) and the United States (5-2) for bronze.
"The world is good in basketball," U.S. goalkeeper and captain Jalen Brunson said Saturday during the team's final practice of the summer.

Germany and Serbia have certainly earned a lot of respect and are on the medal podium together just as they were at the 2002 World Cup; At that event, Serbia won its last World Cup (as former Yugoslavia), while Germany won its first and only World Championship or Olympic medal - bronze.
Germany reached the final by defeating the United States in the semi-final with a score of 113:111. In the second semi-final, Serbia defeated Canada with a score of 95:86. "From the first day we got together this summer, we believed we were a special group and could beat any team," said Germany forward Franz Wagner.

Serbian coach Svetislav Pesic was the gold medal winning coach in that 2002 tournament. Now, at the age of 74, he has a chance to win the world title again 21 years later.
"I don't want to say it, but he is at the end of his career," said Serbian striker Filip Petrusev. "He took it upon himself to bring the medal back, so I think it means the world to him, the world to us, everyone really back home."

There were 26 NBA players in the World Cup semifinals, 19 of whom played for the United States or Canada — and at least seven of those 19 won't be going home with a medal. Germany has four NBA players and Serbia has three.

"Part of being competitive is you're not going to win every time," USA coach Steve Kerr said. "You go into the race, you do everything you can to win, but part of the race is accepting the fact that there's going to be heartbreak."

On Sunday, there are more of them either in the US or Canada.
The rivalry between the neighbors officially goes back 87 years - they played in the final of the 1936 Olympic tournament, where the United States won 19-8 in a game played outside, in the rain, on a clay court that was a muddy, sloppy mess.

The United States is 21-1 against Canada in the senior men's division; the loss came in the preliminary round of the 2005 FIBA ​​Americas Championship. "Right now we have to recover and get excited for the next game," Canadian coach Jordi Fernandez said after his team fell in the semifinals before knowing the Americans would be the opponent in the bronze medal decider.
The Americans said all the right things on the homecoming front on Saturday. The atmosphere was not celebratory, but not completely mournful either.

"It's another chance to play the game we love," American forward Bobby Portis said. "At the end of the day, the domino just fell. We didn't achieve the goal we came here to achieve, but it makes us stronger. We're still fighting for something."

This thing is bronze and it's the best case right now. Portis spoke at length with Milwaukee teammate Khris Middleton after Friday's loss; Middleton highlighted the silver (or bronze in this case) about how at least Portis and this World Cup team still have a shot at a medal.
Middleton was part of the 2019 USA World Cup team that finished seventh in Beijing.

And Americans fully expect this game to be a big deal for Canada, which hasn't won a major medal on the basketball stage since the clay-court slam fest 87 years ago. Both the United States and Canada - as well as Serbia and Germany - have already qualified for the Paris Olympics, so the countries will be able to meet again in France next year.
"The United States and Canada, I think both of our countries are looking forward to each other in the next few years," U.S. guard Tyrese Haliburton said. "It looks like it's kind of the start of something that's going to last for a while."