Goes back to team play. We've always had greater talent but in the late 90s/00s when our International teams started thinking they could coast through on talent and style alone, they faced teams that had grown together since teenagers, and who played the game the right way - and we got beat (shockingly to the USA team). Soccer informs how they position themselves, move without the ball, set screens, move to the basket, pass the ball, etc. Steve Nash often credits his ability to be a 2-time MVP with gaining high bball IQ from growing up in a soccer family playing soccer. Andy has mentioned the same thing.
Really, it'd be ideal to see the two come closer together, which I think is happening in Europe with the talent disparity decreasing over the past decade or so, but it doesn't seem to be happening here where the highly talented players have become even less team-oriented than ever before. Even into the 90s, it was typical that the lottery was full of guys who played 4 years in college, and hadn't switched around high school teams every year, nor had they played on a handful of AAU teams. Coaches also weren't as expendable as they are considered nowadays.