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LeBron James plans to return to the Olympics. Stephen Curry will be playing for the first time. Kevin Durant will go there with an eye on history.
And they’re just part of the star-studded roster the Americans have assembled for the Paris Games.
USA Basketball has 12 players: James, Curry, Durant, Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards, and Kawhi Leonard. I received confirmation that I would accept the invitation. Three people familiar with the decision spoke about the Olympic roster. This group includes seven past gold medalists.
The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because USA Basketball was expected to release the names Wednesday. Leonard, a finalist on each of the past two Olympic teams, was the final piece of the roster puzzle to be finalized, one of the people said.
The United States has an incredible amount of talent on its roster. Seven of the 12 commits finished the season ranked among the top 15 in points per game in the NBA. James is the league’s all-time leading scorer, Curry is the all-time leader in 3-point shooting, Haliburton won the title for assists per game this season, and 10 players were selected as All-Stars this season.
Players around the NBA have been informed of USA Basketball’s decisions over the past few days, one of the people said. USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill has been leading the roster-building mission for the past few months, and the plan from the beginning was to assemble the team well in advance of training camp, which begins in Las Vegas in early July. Was that. Tryouts were never part of this team’s plans.
Durant has said he plans to play since last year, which means he aims to become the first male athlete in Olympic history to win four gold medals in basketball. He and Carmelo Anthony are the only male athletes to win three Olympic gold medals. The six female players, all American, have won at least four gold medals in Olympic basketball. Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi each won five, and Teresa Edwards, Tamika Catchings, Sylvia Fowles and Lisa Leslie each won four.
James will be aiming for his fourth medal after winning bronze in 2004 and gold in 2008 and 2012. Other past gold medalists on the roster are Davis (2012), Adebayo (2020), Booker (2020), Tatum (2020) and Holiday. (2020). The 2020 gold medal was won in 2021 because the Tokyo Games were postponed by a year due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Curry is competing in his first Olympics, as is Embiid, who chose to play for the United States after becoming an American citizen last year. The Cameroon-born center could have been selected to represent France at the Paris Games.
Other first-time Olympians on the current roster are Haliburton and Edwards, both of whom played on the U.S. team that finished fourth at last year’s World Cup in Manila.
Many of the commitments are not surprising. In October, Durant and Curry said they wanted to play this summer, and Adebayo said he was already committed to the team at the time, and it seemed like it would be the case for a while if a player like James wanted to play. Then they just say yes.
U.S. men’s basketball athletes have participated in 19 Olympic Games, winning a total of 19 medals: 16 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze.
The Paris team will be coached by Steve Kerr and supported by Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue and Mark Few. There’s still a chance the roster could change before the summer if injuries or a deep run in the NBA playoffs cause players to change their minds about their national team commitments.
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