USA Basketball will take a roster full of NBA All-Stars to Paris in its attempt to win a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry headline a team that also includes Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday, Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton.
“It’s an honor to introduce the 2024 USA Basketball Men’s National Team,” Grant Hill, the team’s managing director, said in a statement. “I’m grateful to these 12 men for their commitment to represent USA Basketball. The United States is home to some of the best basketball players in the world and I appreciate the vast interest in being part of this roster.”
Greatness Unites.
The 2024 USA Men’s National Team is here.
🇺🇸 #USABMNT pic.twitter.com/I2jOLsrcQv
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) April 17, 2024
USAB officials traveled to present the players with special Team USA Olympic jerseys. Training camp for the Olympics doesn’t start until July 5, in Las Vegas, and Team USA’s first game isn’t until July 28 — but players will soon participate in content for Olympic promotion, sources close to the players said.
The team will open an international training window by hosting Australia and Serbia on July 15 and 17 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The Americans will then travel to London’s O2 Arena and play South Sudan on July 20 and Germany on July 22.
Durant, the Americans’ all-time leading scorer, has three gold medals. James has two golds and Tatum, Booker, Holiday, Davis and Adebayo have one. Curry played for Team USA on two World Cup teams and won gold twice, but has yet to play in the Olympics, and Embiid has never played in an international competition.
James, 39, Curry, 36, and Durant, 35, have long viewed their potential partnership on Team USA for the Paris Games as a “last dance” for them within the USA program, especially as they near the end of their NBA careers.
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Leonard, like Embiid, has never played in a FIBA competition. Leonard, a favorite to make the team of both Durant and James, is battling a knee injury and his status for the start of the playoffs with the LA Clippers is unknown.
Davis and Adebayo, two Olympic veterans, are obvious additions, given their size and defensive prowess, while Edwards and Haliburton are two young, dynamic guards whom USA deep thinkers view as a bridge between the present and future of the American men’s national team.
Curry’s coach on the Warriors, Steve Kerr, is coaching Team USA again this summer and will step down from the American team after the Olympics, he previously told The Athletic.
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)