Two holdovers from the Beijing Olympics gold medal team and
two new additions are expected to lead the Team USA campaign in the FIBA World Basketball Championships in Turkey this coming August.
According to
nba.fanhouse.com, Jerry Colangelo, USA basketball chairman, said that only
Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz and Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets are expected to be back for the World cage meet to be backstopped by NBA scoring
champion Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder and New York Knicks newest
acquisition Amare Stoudemire.
Considered out from the team are LeBron
James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony,
Carlos Boozer, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd and Jason Kidd. Team USA will open its training camp on July 19 in Las Vegas
"It's a combination of three things, free agency,
injuries and having gone hard for a long time. And I'm OK with that. They're
making arrangements to be there, but Deron isn't sure (about playing) because
of his (wrist) injury, and the same thing with Chris. He's not sure his knee
will be physically ready ... So they'll be there and we'll see.
We realized that it was impractical (with the free-agency
frenzy surrounding some of the top players). And we saw it as an opportunity
for our young players ... We have an opportunity for our young players to show
what they can do.
I'm excited. We've got a great group of young
guys and we have a great coaching staff. It's going to be a challenge. But I'm
looking forward to it.”
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