The USA Olympic Basketball roster has been finalized for the 2024 Paris Summer Games. This Olympic team will be full of stars from top to bottom. As well as this star studded roster, team U.S. has the coaching fire power to pair with it. In addition to this star-studded roster and coaching staff, in reality, this may be many players’ final chance at gold. Under those circumstances, this entire team will be chasing history this summer.
Star Studded Roster
Lebron James basketball’s biggest star plans to go back and play for the summer Olympic team. As a matter of fact joining him will be super star Steph Curry in what will be his first-ever Olympics. As well as to add to this star power Kevin Durant will be rejoining the summer team too. 12 players confirmed their participation. Those players are Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, Joel Embid, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and finally Kawhi Leonard. All 12 players that have been invited will accept the invitation to play. Albeit a very talented roster the trick will be putting it all together on the court this summer.
Seven Previous Gold Medalists
The amount of talent that will be on this roster is staggering. Equally important of the 12 commits, seven finished the season ranked among the NBA’s top 15 scorers per game. James is the league’s all-time leading scorer. Curry is the all-time leader in three point shooting and Haliburton won the assist per-game title this season. Ten of these players were NBA all-stars this season too.
USA Olympic Basketball Director Grant Hill
USA managing director Grant Hill has been granted the opportunity to assemble this roster, over the past several months. For Hill the plan all along was to put together this team well in advance of training camp. During some time in July located in Las Vegas, training camp for the Paris Olympics will begin. Different from past Olympic seasons, players would be invited and had to try out for the team. This year will be different. Under Hill tryouts, we’re never going to be a part of the plan for this team. It’s all about getting the best possible talent and then pairing it well on the court.
Chasing History
Durant made it clear he planned on playing since last year. Which means he will pursue becoming the first men’s player in Olympic history with four basketball gold medals. He and Carmelo Anthony are the only men with three Olympic gold medals. There are six women, all American with at least four Olympic basketball gold medals. Sue Bird, and Diana Taurasi, each have five, while Teresa Edwards, Tamika Catchings, Sylvia Fowles, and Lisa Leslie all have four.
USA Olympic Basketball Coaching Staff
A roster with this much talent needs coaching with just as much talent and prowess. The Paris team will be led by Steve Kerr, and assisted by Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue and Mark Few. However, it is still possible the roster changes before the summer. If injuries or deep runs in the playoffs force players to change their minds about committing to the national team. It may be tough but this team has the star power and coaching pedigree to handle it all.
Conclusion
The U.S. men have competed in basketball 19 times, winning 19 medals, 16 gold, one silver, and two bronze. Having this strong history many players want to compete for those medals as well. Although many commitments are not surprises from the players. Durant and Curry both made claims back in October that they will be competing this summer. Adebayo himself committed to playing in the fall as well. If players like James want to play, all they have to do is say so. For many at this present time of the USA basketball team will possibly be competing for the final time in their careers. Therefore, going out with gold medals is at the forefront.
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