The world is far from catching the U.S. if you are speakind about overall basketball talent. If you are talking about how a team which plays together under its rules plays a group of NBA superstars who are thrown together without enough time to practice and are playing under rules they are not use to, then yes, maybe the world has caught up. All the same, we will win gold this year.
Think of the top 5 international players, if you even can, and compare them to Lebron, Kobe, Howard, Paul and Tim Duncan and tell me that they would stand a chance playing under the NBA rules. They wouldnt, in fact, they would lose by an average of 30. The world has caught up, ha ha, I cant even think of the top 10 non-U.S. players and I love basketball.