A Look at How Would Individual States Stack Up in the Olympics

With the Olympics around the corner, it got us thinking: What if the United States could only enter teams as states or regions? After all, the USA has an unfair advantage in that it’s a massive country. Many individual states are more similar in size to many of the most successful Olympic countries.

In the last Olympics, Australia (26 million) and Slovenia (2 million) finished 3rd and 4th. Serbia (6 million) won the Silver in 2016, and Spain (47 million) claimed the Bronze. Many great American players, however, will never have a chance to compete in the Olympics without obtaining citizenship in another country.

We will take the best current players in our view that were born in each state as that stats citizenship and see what kind of team they could construct for a hypothetical Olympic bid.

Tier 1

California would be the favorite, as they should be, with a population of nearly 40 million. If California were competing with the rest of the world, it would be a contender for gold. With roughly 60 active NBA players, there were many helpful depth parts that could have been included, like Brook Lopez, Spencer Dinwiddie, Tim Hardaway, etc., and others that would easily make the rotation in other states or compete and likely be cut from a hypothetical California team.

Tier 2

Texas is easily the 2nd largest state, but it seems like quite a few smaller states would be much closer on par with their star power and depth than California.

Any team with LeBron James and Steph Curry, regardless of whether they are over the age of 35, could compete with how they are playing. There would be strong guard depth as well with McCollum, Rozier, Trent, but it falls apart somewhat in the post. LeBron would play a lot at PF, and they would probably have to dust off Kosta Koufos, who’s out of the league, or find a barely NBA big like Micah Potter or some current college player.

Georgia is one of the more impressive “smaller” states. It’s a young team with players like Edwards, Smith and Kessler who’s best days are probably in the future.

Tier 3

Michigan is pretty solid with players like Booker, Draymond, Kuzma and Bridges.

With Anthony Davis, Fred VanVleet, and Pat Beverly this team would have the makings of a good defensive unit. They are the odd team that lacks a real gunner to create shots. Rose or Nunn would try.

Chris Paul is in the twilight of his career, but there are some nice young players, which are mostly the core of the Pelicans. They would lack quality bigs and would depend on how Zion was playing.

New York has some star power with Mitchell, but this is not that impressive a team given their state size.

Florida is the relative least impressive team in the top 10 given they are the 3rd largest state by a lot. There are states with half the population like Georgia we would favor.

Wisconsin is the most impressive smaller state with just under 6 million people. When you compare it to a state like Florida or New York with 3 or 4 times the population. Their biggest weapon is Haliburton.

Not a State

One Underdog similar to Slovina in this hypothetical with 2 million is Washington DC with under 800k. They key is they have Kevin Durant. It’s doubtful they could put enough around him to compete with boarderline NBA and college players, but they wouldn’t be the worst US State by a longshot if they were a state or allowed to compete. As Luka Doncic has shown with a very small country, it only takes one really good player.

Biggest Disappointment

For a state the size of Pennsylvania with a city like Philadelphia as a base, their hypothetical team would be fairly disappointing. They are the only top 10 population state that I wouldn’t expect to make the top 10 power rankings.

Conclusion

California, Texas, Ohio would likely be medal contenders. Georgia, and Michigan and Illinois would have an outside chance to compete. Wisconsin we’d project is the best smaller state. Pennsylvania is the most disappointing for it’s size unlikely to crack the top 10 in a hypothetical American competition.