While NBA stars don’t always commit to USA Basketball and international play, that could change for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Oftentimes, the extra wear from playing in the Olympics or FIBA World Cup can be tough ahead of the long NBA season, which is why some players don’t suit up to play in the summer.
But that could change in what looks like one last ride for Lakers star LeBron James in a quest to nab one last gold medal. James is ready to commit to USA Basketball for the 2024 Olympics, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania, and he’s starting to recruit stars from around the league to bolster the roster.
That list of names includes Celtics star Jayson Tatum, who already won a gold medal in Tokyo at the 2020 Olympics. Back then, Tatum was the team’s second leading scorer, only trailing Kevin Durant, earning some praise for Durant that Tatum is part of the future of USA Basketball. It’s no surprise Tatum wants to play for USA Basketball again, considering he’s publicly said he wants to join the team again for the Olympics.
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James has also spoken to Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Anthony Davis about joining USA Basketball, and Charania reports they’re all ready to commit to playing in Paris. Not only is that an impressive cast of names, they’re all older veterans, so the commitment to earning that gold medal is real. Other names, per Charania, interested in playing in Paris are: Devin Booker, Damian Lillard, De’Aaron Fox and Kyrie Irving.
USA Basketball is coming off a disappointing showing this summer in the 2023 FIBA World Cup. They lost the semifinal game to Germany by just two points, then they dropped the third-place game to Canada in overtime.
But Charania reports James had interest in building up a strong Paris team before seeing how the USA team did this summer. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of roster comes together in 2024 as it appears James wants one last gold-medal run during his playing career.
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