LeBron James ready to join 2024 Olympic team, recruiting other stars: Sources

MANILA, Philippines — As the U.S. men’s basketball team’s victorious All-Stars and role players hang up their gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, speculation is already rife that the Paris Games will attract the country’s basketball players. the best.

With less than a year until the 2024 Olympics, Team USA finished a disappointing fourth at the FIBA ​​World Cup on Sunday with just three All-Stars on the roster and no one With the experience of the men’s national team, these players’ old Paris predictions are clearly closer to coming true.

LeBron James, a three-time Olympian, two-time gold medalist and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, has a strong interest in competing in another Olympics, and he’s already gearing up for next summer’s competition and has called up a number of players. Stars Come Recruiting Multiple league sources revealed they will join USAB in Paris with him sports world.

James has spoken with Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum and Draymond Green, and they are all ready to commit.Plus, Phoenix’s Devin Booker and Portland’s Damian Lillard, League sources said Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox and Dallas’ Kyrie Irving also have strong interest.

James’ efforts began long before the U.S. team led by Anthony Edwards and Mikal Bridges lost in the World Cup, and it has nothing to do with whether the team wins or loses this summer. Although the U.S. national team has performed poorly in the past two World Cups, the event has won gold medals in four consecutive Olympics.

James, who has not played for Team USA since the 2012 London Olympics and will turn 39 in December, and three-time Olympic gold medalist Durant, who turns 35 next summer, view the Paris Games as their “last” Dancing with USA Basketball, sources said.

Curry, 36, who has never competed in the Olympics but won two World Cups with the U.S. in 2010 and 2014, will face a similar situation next summer. Sources say James, Durant and Curry have spoken about one last Team USA game.

Tatum, Green and Lillard are all gold medalists at the Tokyo Olympics, and Durant is the team’s MVP.

USA Basketball general manager Grant Hill is aware of the interest in James and other high-profile U.S. stars but declined to comment further. sports world.

Generally speaking, many U.S. officials acknowledge that Paris not only looks different from the team that just came out of the World Cup, but that the next one will likely have more star power.

Last NBA season, Hill spoke with players on both sides: one to fill out the 2023 World Cup roster and one to begin recruiting for Paris.

After the U.S. was knocked out of the championship game by Germany last week, U.S. head coach Steve Kerr was asked about the new trend in roster turnover for the U.S. team from summer to summer.

“Part of the agreement with USAB is passing the baton to the next group of coaching staff, the next group of players,” Kerr said, adding, “What’s unique about us is we have a deep talent pool and a lot of very valuable players. Players I think these players and coaches deserve the honor of wearing this Team USA jersey.”

If these older NBA stars do play for Kerr in Paris next summer, it will be a case of passing the baton backwards.

James played for Team USA from 2004 to 2008 and returned to the London Olympics. In addition to Durant’s three Olympic appearances, he was also a member of the 2010 world championship team. Green is a two-time gold medalist. Davis won a gold medal with James in 2012 and a world championship with Curry in 2014. Tatum won a gold medal in 2021 and was named to the 2019 World Cup squad.

But rampant speculation and looming commitments — even if the aforementioned players will appear at NBA Media Days and declare themselves “selected” for 2024 — don’t necessarily mean these more established stars will be in Paris.

For example, after the 2019 World Cup, the United States finished a disappointing seventh place and fielded players who weren’t considered “A” roster players at the time (Tatum didn’t reach that level until after the World Cup), countless Players A number of stars, including James, have expressed interest in representing Team USA at the start of NBA training camp at the Tokyo Olympics.

Among them, only Durant lasted until 2021. Granted, the Tokyo Olympics were delayed a year due to COVID-19, and pandemic protocols will still be in place when the Games finally take place, but there’s no doubt that what an American star said in October may change come July .

The Olympics will begin on July 26, 2024, and Team USA is expected to travel to multiple countries for a full training camp and preseason before arriving in France. If any interested superstar makes a deep playoff run, they’ll be investing a lot of time and body after a grueling season. James, Davis, Durant, Curry and even Lillard have all experienced serious injuries in the past few years.

Finally, the first part of the Olympic basketball competition will not be held in Paris. It’s common knowledge, but few NBA stars know that the preliminaries will be held in Lille, France, an hour and 40 minutes north by train from Paris.

The medal game will be played in Paris, but romanticizing a “last dance” for some American basketball legends in one of the most beautiful cities in the world is only half-truth. The evening will be spent in Lille, an industrial town not far from Belgium.

Because of all of these factors, Hill, Kerr (who coached Curry and Green with the Warriors) and longtime general manager Sean Ford need to continue conversations with all players on their radar in 2024.

Team USA no longer generates an official “talent pool” of U.S.-eligible players and now assembles the national team by invitation only. They won’t be out until well after the NBA All-Star break, and in some cases even later, because part of that depends on whether a player’s commitment is contingent on an early playoff exit.

Hypothetically, if James and every player he’s contacted were on the PSG roster, Team USA would have six spots to fill. If Booker and Lillard are added, that leaves four spots.

Bam Adebayo, a 2021 Olympic gold medalist who came close to playing for Team USA this summer, is widely considered a strong candidate for Paris.

Desmond Bane is a tall, stocky two-way guard with a style that’s perfect for FIBA ​​and would have been on the World Cup roster had he not had offseason foot surgery. He’s still a possibility.

The prospect of convincing reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid to play in an international tournament; and B.) doing it for Team USA instead of France, keep playing.

Then there is the issue of considering the players on the World Cup team. Edwards is a shooting guard and the leading scorer for Team USA. When asked last week if he wanted to compete in the Olympics, he said: “Yes, of course I would.”

Fullback Bridges said: “I don’t think I would ever say no. It’s an honor.”

Finally, there is the issue of building a squad suitable for international competition. The U.S. had no trouble doing this at the Olympics, despite losing to France in Tokyo and narrowly beating France in the gold medal game, and running into all sorts of trouble at the World Cup.

Team USA needed more interior players to make an impact, but they’ve stepped up. Team USA has two 7-footers in Jaren Jackson Jr. and Walker Kessler this summer, but Jackson largely underperformed as the only big man in a four-guard lineup (he averaged just 2.8 rebounds), and Kessler barely played.

This summer, the U.S.’s size disadvantage was so apparent that in games against Montenegro, Lithuania and Germany, the U.S. was outscored 64-13 on second-chance points.

So when Kerr was asked over the weekend about how to build future rosters (he didn’t ask specifically about James or the players he’s calling up), he was asked if the lesson from the World Cup is that Team USA has to add more depth to its roster.

“I think it’s an issue worth discussing, but the discussion has to turn to ‘OK, so who is that?'” Kerr said. “You can’t just say, we’re going to get scale for scale’s sake.” You have to have players that can help you win, and you have to identify who those people are. It’s not just the size, but also the gameplay.

“I think for this team, our commitment has been there and our character is unquestionable,” Kerr added. “We’re all very committed to the cause, but our defense just wasn’t good enough. But I think it’s more than just size. “I think if you go that route, you have to check who you’re talking about. “

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