What happened Sunday to Major League Soccer is what happened to foreign basketball teams that long ago went against American hoops gods such as Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley.

The MLS got Dream-Teamed.

Paris Saint-Germain dunked repeatedly on MLS’ glamour franchise — Lionel Messi-led Inter Miami — in Sunday’s Round of 16 Club World Cup match in Atlanta.

The final score of 4-0 could’ve been 8-0 if the Parisians had desired to flambé the MLS squad after halftime.

The world’s hottest soccer team, Paris Saint-Germain buried Inter Miami by the break, scoring in the sixth minute and erupting for three more goals within a six-minute span.

Like the U.S. basketball greats who rolled through the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the French footballers toyed with their opponent Sunday and elicited “oohs” and “ahhs” from the crowd.

Don’t be too hard on MLS and America’s soccer dreamers, however. MLS, age 30, is still an infant by world soccer standards.

And the same PSG players that schooled Inter Miami have been authoring a version of the beautiful game that few club teams ever have — such as in last month’s 5-0 drubbing of Inter Milan to secure the French team’s first Champions League title on top of dazzling runs to Lige 1 and Coupe de France crowns.

Once PSG decided it would field the same lineup minus one player that had outclassed Inter Milan, the best chances for MLS would’ve been Atlanta’s sticky traffic bogging down PSG’s bus.

In truth, PSG’s dominance owed not to individual greatness but a seamless blend of very good players.

So what did we learn from MLS participation in a much-expanded, stateside-only Club World Cup that saw only Inter Miami — which went 1-1-2 — advance out of group stage and quick exits for Seattle (0-3-0) and LAFC (0-2-1)?

Foremost, we learned something we already knew: it’s unfair to expect any MLS team to consistently match the football quality of Europe’s better clubs, of which there are many, much less the standard bearers in Brazil and Argentina.

Not now. Not ever.

And that’s fine.

MLS can still produce entertaining soccer. It ought to be able to create a successful niche — if its leaders sharpen their games.

Let’s go back to my basketball comparison and a key difference. When the Dream Team was winning by an average of 44 points en route to gold in Spain, no other country was close to the United States in basketball prowess.

In soccer, America is well behind not one otherworldly opponent but a whole bunch of football-passionate countries. What’s more, none of those countries’ leagues have to contend with a beast like the NFL.

MLS still can carve out a fruitful place on the global scene. Plus, the MSL-record 10 matches in the Club World Cup – an event that’s not a great competition, given that many of the world’s leagues are coming off a long season – will provide useful data and feedback.

This, too: though praising FIFA for anything requires pinching one’s nose, the poohbahs were right to finagle Inter Miami into the tournament. Messi and Co. beat one of Portugal’s top teams, 2-1. Three of their matches attracted more than 60,000 fans, including Sunday’s crowd of 65,578.

MLS must make sure its economic model continues to allow for spendy approaches like Miami’s.

But the wrong conclusion would be for MLS to decide that jacking up its players’ salaries will result in much better soccer. MLS should look to increase players’ pay, but European leagues and the Saudi League will still live in a different financial stratosphere.

“It’s so difficult to say exactly where the league stands,” said Tyler Heaps, the general manager of San Diego FC, said on Sunday, “but I don’t think that spending more money, for example, in Miami, is going to make them compete with the best team in the world.

“And,” Heaps added, “I also don’t think MLS should be trying to compete with a PSG. Because it’s in the most population-dense (region) of talent in the world, it’s arguably one of the best academies in the world and they have endless amounts of money due to their sponsorship and (Qatari) ownership, where I don’t think any MLS team is going to be able to come close to being able to spend where they do.”

Heaps praised the Seattle Sounders, coached by Brian Schmetzer, who won multiple rings as a defender with the San Diego Sockers in their heyday. Seattle was somewhat competitive against three global powers: big-spending Botafogo of Brazil (2-1 loss), Atletico Madrid (3-1 loss) and PSG (2-0 loss) before three home crowds ranging from 30,100 to 51,636.

The Sounders, Heaps noted, aren’t one of MLS’ bigger spenders.

Heaps’ thoughts on how MLS can improve should be heard by MLS HQ. Unburdened by bad contracts, SDFC leads the 30-team league in both goals scored and assists through 20 matches. SDFC (12-5-3) stands atop the 15-team Western Conference.

“If you look at the Premier League, it’s probably the most watchable league in the world,” Heaps said. “And it’s because some teams spend a lot of money, but there also are a lot of teams that are very clever. You look at the Brightons, at the Brentfords, at even Bournemouth, these clubs are all competing week in, week out with these other teams. And they’re doing it on a much lower budget because they have a clear idea and strategy.

“That’s what MLS lacks,” added Heaps. “There are too many clubs that aren’t really sure what they’re trying to do, year in and year out, or they’re constantly changing. And that’s hurting the watchability of the league but also the ability to compete at a higher level.”

Ideally, the folks who invest in an MLS club are “really committed to investing in people,” said Heaps, who at 34 is the league’s youngest sporting director and has 10-plus years of football experiences abroad. “Then, it’s hiring experts that also are aligned with the ownership. That’s where I was really fortunate to come into this project, is that I am extremely aligned with the (family of team chairman Sir Mohamed Mansour, a British-Egyptian billionaire businessman) and the Right to Dream (global set of developmental academies). I see football the same way they do. That’s a really fortunate thing because I don’t think every sporting director has that.”

From me, two reminders for MLS’ top bosses: no more expansion, make the schedule less grueling.

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