Damian Lillard and DeMar DeRozan are the latest NBA stars to pass up a chance to join Team USA for the FIBA World Cup, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links).
Lillard, who agreed to a super-max extension with the Trail Blazers earlier this month, was rumored to be on the fence about playing in the tournament. DeRozan was added to the original list of training camp invites about a month ago, but he has elected to focus on the upcoming season.
That’s a common reason given by many of the stars who have withdrawn from camp, a list that also includes Anthony Davis, James Harden, Bradley Beal, CJ McCollum and Eric Gordon. A decision is expected soon from Kevin Love, while Kyle Lowry is recovering from a surgical procedure on his thumb and isn’t guaranteed to be physically ready for competition.
One player who is definitely remaining with the team is Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, tweets Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
The camp will run from August 5-8, with the tournament scheduled for August 31 to September 14 in China.
This is getting insane already. If there were incentives attached, they’d do it. The US team should still be fine, but smaller countries that can’t get through qualifiers without their NBA players. Cameroon didn’t qualify for the World Cup and may not qualify for the Olympics, but a team with a starting lineup of Embiid, Siakam, M’bah A’Mouté, DJ Strawberry and the kid from UNLV could be a force in the Olympics.
they should be fine because pop their coach. but i remember the years before 08 when team usa wasnt as good.
im totally ok if the team turn into a team of young players. i think it be fun to see what they could with the up and coming stars.
they should be fine because pop their coach. but i remember the years before 08 when team usa wasnt as good.
Its not because Pop is their coach. Its because even as you go way down the depth chart the US has way more talent than any other country
Yes but remember before 08 when coach k was here and stars started to play. They weren’t as good as a team.
Yessss thank goodness. I was waiting for Dame to pull out of the competition once CJ withdrew his name from consideration. It’s way better to get ready for the season especially after a deep playoff run last year for them. And Dame doesn’t owe Team USA anything because they snubbed him in the past. Now that they need him they can’t have him, it’s karma.
A young team with the likes of Donovan Mitchell, Trae Young, John Collins, Julius Randell, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Miles Turner, DAngelo Russell, Kyle Kuzma, Zach LaVine, Aaron Gordan and Devin Booker, should be the focus. All these stars are obviously going to pull out and focus on there NBA teams titles aspirations. These players meet up all the time in the off season and in all star teams it’s better to give this opportunity to young stars to meet up and compete who don’t always gets the look in for all stars and stuff.
I would love to see a team like that