LeBron James goes again to the Olympics for the primary time in 12 years. Stephen Curry is headed to the Video games for the primary time. Kevin Durant will go there along with his eyes on historical past. The trio are simply a part of a star-studded roster the Individuals have assembled for Paris 2024.
USA Basketball introduced its males’s Olympic crew for Paris on Wednesday – James, Curry, Durant, Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Davis, Jrue Vacation, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and Kawhi Leonard are the 12 names on the roster.
“We’re giving ourselves an opportunity to win with the expertise we have now,” USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill mentioned on NBC’s As we speak present. “It’ll be thrilling. It’ll be powerful. It received’t be simple. We now have nice respect for all the opposite groups. However definitely, that is going to be an iconic roster.”
The group has seven gamers with 10 mixed Olympic gold medals; Durant has three, James has two, whereas Adebayo, Booker, Vacation, Tatum and Booker every have one. Mixed, the 12 gamers had averages of 24.2 factors, 7.0 rebounds and 5.6 assists this season, capturing 39% from three-point vary.
“Clearly, it’s a fantastic honor to symbolize your nation,” Adebayo mentioned. “However for me, to be in that room as a part of these 12 gamers, a part of who they suppose are the 12 greatest gamers to symbolize america, it takes it to a special stage.”
The quantity of expertise on the US roster is spectacular. Of the 12 gamers, seven completed the season ranked among the many NBA’s prime 15 scorers per recreation. James is the league’s all-time scoring chief, Curry the all-time chief in three-pointers, Haliburton received the assist-per-game title this season and 10 have been All-Stars this season as effectively. James, Curry, Durant and Embiid have all been named NBA MVP throughout their careers.
“The objective is to win the gold,” Hill mentioned. “They know that.”
The Individuals have received the final 4 Olympic gold medals and stay ranked No 1 on this planet by Fiba even after failing to win medals within the two most up-to-date World Cups – ending seventh in 2019 and fourth final summer time.
They received gold on the Tokyo Video games by topping France 87-82. Crew USA shall be heavy favorites to retain their title, and have received the final 4 males’s tournaments on the Olympics. However the expertise in worldwide basketball has surged in recent times and they’re going to face competitors from groups together with two-time MVP Nikola Jokic’s Serbia, a stacked Canada crew, Germany, who beat the US on the best way to successful the 2023 Fiba World Cup, and hosts France, led by the 7ft 4in Victor Wembanyama, who has set the NBA alight in his rookie NBA season.
“Your hope is that they haven’t performed collectively earlier than,” Canada’s Kelly Olynyk mentioned when informed of the US roster, “aside from the 12 final All-Star video games.”
Hill has led the duty of assembling the roster for the previous a number of months, and the plan all alongside was to place collectively the crew effectively prematurely of coaching camp beginning at Las Vegas in early July.
Durant has mentioned since final yr that he plans to play, which implies he’ll pursue changing into the primary males’s participant in Olympic historical past with 4 basketball gold medals. He and Carmelo Anthony are the one males’s gamers with three Olympic golds; there are six ladies, all American, with not less than 4 Olympic basketball golds. Sue Chook and Diana Taurasi every have 5, whereas Teresa Edwards, Tamika Catchings, Sylvia Fowles and Lisa Leslie every received 4.
James will search a fourth medal, after successful bronze in 2004 and golds in 2008 and 2012. The opposite previous gold medalists on the roster are Davis (2012), Adebayo (2020), Booker (2020), Tatum (2020) and Vacation (2020). The 2020 gold medals have been received in 2021, because the Covid-19 pandemic pressured a one-year delay of the Tokyo Video games.
Curry will play within the Olympics for the primary time, as will Leonard and Embiid – who selected to play for the US final yr after changing into an American citizen. The Cameroon-born middle additionally might have chosen to symbolize France on the Paris Video games.
The opposite first-time Olympians on the present roster are Haliburton and Edwards, each of whom performed for the US crew that completed fourth on the World Cup in Manila final yr.
There have been greater than 40 gamers into consideration for this crew, and getting the roster to 12 was removed from simple.
“I feel everyone understands that these Olympics are going to be perhaps essentially the most anticipated, provided that it’s Paris, when it comes to gamers eager to go, gamers’ wives eager to go, everyone eager to go,” US coach Steve Kerr mentioned. “It made for some actually troublesome selections for us, for positive.”
Durant and Curry mentioned in October that they wished to play this summer time, Adebayo mentioned then that he had already dedicated to the crew, and it’s been assumed for a while that if gamers like James wish to play, then all they need to do is say so.
The US males have competed in basketball on the Olympics 19 instances, successful 19 medals – 16 gold, one silver and two bronze.
The Paris crew shall be coached by Kerr, assisted by Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue and Mark Few. It’s nonetheless potential that the roster modifications earlier than the summer time, if accidents or deep runs within the NBA playoffs power gamers to alter their minds about committing to the nationwide crew.
