The U.S.A Basketball will be represented by an enormously talented Olympic team this August. NBA Most Valuable Player Kobe Bryant will be heading to his first Olympics, and he’ll have superstars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade with him. They will lead a U.S. Olympic basketball team that was announced Monday and hopes to capture the gold medal in Beijing, China after a third-place showing in Athens, Greece four years ago.
They’ll have plenty of help. They were joined by Carmelo Anthony, Jason Kidd, Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams. The team was selected without a tryout. It will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and meet there July 20-25 to train and play an exhibition against Canada before heading overseas. The Americans open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10.
Although the Americans captured the gold at the Sydney Games in 2000, they no longer dominate international play as they once did. The talent gap has narrowed and many top NBA players have chosen to not play for the national team in recent years. Now, the U.S. team appears loaded. Then again, the U.S. went 5-3 in Athens and lost for the first time since NBA players started competing in 1992 even though they had James, Anthony, Wade and Tim Duncan. That group got routed by Puerto Rico before losing to Lithuania and Argentina, but this one is confident it will take the gold. It is a deep team that includes one of the best shooters (Redd) and defensive players (Prince). There are role players and scorers, including the two biggest (Bryant and James). Kobi Bryant just won his first MVP and led the Los Angeles Lakers to the finals. LeBron James averaged 30.0 points, just enough to beat Bryant for the scoring title. Those two along with Carmelo Anthony, Jason Kidd and Dwight Howard started for a team that went unbeaten in the Olympic qualifying tournament last year. Eight of the 12 players headed to Beijing played on that team and six played in the 2006 world championships.
The team is lead by Mike Krzyzewski, who warns that “unless we show the respect to the rest of the world that it is the world’s game” there will be no gold medal. “We’re a team already,” Krzyzewski said. “The thing that this program has done is … provide continuity and relationships. … We’ll hit the ground running. Selecting a group of 12 out of the many stars in the NBA is obviously going to leave out a number of outstanding people.”
Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire withdrew from Olympic consideration, apparently concerned about pushing his body too hard after knee surgery in 2005 and 2006. So did Detroit’s Chauncey Billups, who would have had a tough time making the team given the depth in the backcourt. I personally would have loved to see three point specialist Ray Allen and versatile forward Kevin Garnett on the team.
Dwyane Wade’s season ended in March because of a sore left knee that had been bothering him since surgery in 2007. He started working out in his hometown Chicago in May, and James and Chris Paul joined him to help sharpen his game. Team officials visited recently to see how far along he had come in his rehab and left convinced the 6-foot-4 guard was healthy. They saw him do a few things in terms of explosiveness that showed that he was pretty much back. Trainer Tim Grover assured officials that the Miami Heat star will be completely ready when the team gathers in Las Vegas next month.
“I feel great,” Wade said. And he will feel even better with a gold medal dangling from his neck.
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