US Men's Olympic Team

[DJT]

CHICAGO -- MVP Kobe Bryant will be heading to his first Olympics, and he'll have LeBron James and Dwyane Wade with him.

They will lead a U.S. Olympic basketball team that was announced Monday -- one that hopes to capture the gold medal in Beijing in August after a third-place showing in Athens four years ago. They'll have plenty of help.

Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd were among the 12 players placed on the squad. They were joined by Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams.

"It was a very difficult selection process," USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said during a news conference. "When you have as many outstanding players as we have in this country -- to select a group of 12 is obviously going to leave out a number of outstanding people."

The team was selected without a tryout. It will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and reconvene 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. will field a team that appears loaded. Then again, the Americans 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's really the world's game. We think we're the best at playing that game," said coach Mike Krzyzewski, warning 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.

Wade and Anthony said they didn't know what to expect when they went to Athens.

"I've always seen greatness in the Olympics, but that was never one of my dreams," Wade said. "I never really expected to be on the Olympic team, especially in my first year. I didn't have a clue what I was getting into. ... Now, we respect the game so much. We respect the team basketball that they play internationally so much."

Anthony saw the 2004 Games as a chance to "have some of the best workouts in the summer time with the best players in the world" and went there thinking "the USA is supposed to win everything."

"Going through that experience really helped me to learn the international game," Anthony said.

He's part of 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 just won his first MVP and led the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA Finals. James averaged 30.0 points -- just enough to beat Bryant for the scoring title.

Those two, along with Anthony, 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.

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.

Wade's season ended in March because of a sore left knee that had been bothering him since undergoing surgery in 2007. He started working out in his hometown Chicago in May, and James and Paul joined him to help sharpen his game. Colangelo visited recently and left convinced the 6-foot-4 guard was healthy.

"This was to see how far along he had come in his rehab," Colangelo said. "That was the whole thing. Plus, I had a little conversation I wanted to have with him. We took care of that. I watched him work. I saw him do a few things in terms of explosiveness that showed me that he was pretty much back."

Trainer Tim Grover has been working out with Wade. Colanagelo said Grover assured him the Miami Heat star will be completely ready when the team gathers in Las Vegas next month.

"I feel great," Wade said.

And he'll feel even better with a gold medal dangling from his neck.

Hmmm only 3 big guys???? Guess we're gonna try playing some small ball.

Did I say some...I mean a lot.

 

[.dk92]

can u say gold medal?

 

[DJT]

Eh...you can, but they will probably have a hard time. It will be interesting to see how they work with each other.

 

[AirForceFlash_3]

It looks like Melo and LBJ will split time at PF. It looks like a good idea on paper especially with how fast most of these international teams play. Hopefully, the bigs we have don't get into foul trouble or else we might be seeing LBJ at Center (Magic-esc). This team really has the potential to be a gold medal winning team, as long as Melo doesn't ballhog and our lack of bigs doesn't hurt us. Looking at this, the only thing I don't like is having both Redd and Tayshaun (one a great shooter, the other a great defender). IMO, one should have been left out in favor of a big, but it looks like that's not what Coach K wanted.

 

[yezzir]

Awesome, can't wait. :smile:

 

[The Young One]

We are gonna kick some ass AMERICA FTW!

BTw am i the only person who heard ricky rubio will be playing.

 

[DJT]

It looks like Melo and LBJ will split time at PF. It looks like a good idea on paper especially with how fast most of these international teams play. Hopefully, the bigs we have don't get into foul trouble or else we might be seeing LBJ at Center (Magic-esc). This team really has the potential to be a gold medal winning team, as long as Melo doesn't ballhog and our lack of bigs doesn't hurt us. Looking at this, the only thing I don't like is having both Redd and Tayshaun (one a great shooter, the other a great defender). IMO, one should have been left out in favor of a big, but it looks like that's not what Coach K wanted.

lol, in the article it says they have role players, and this is obviously why they are there.

 

[NjNets15]

Well They have 3 Big men, they can rotate those through the PF and C and Lebron and Melo are both capable of playing PF so the team is good, Kobe and Lebron present a major problem because no team can guard one of them along, both on the court at the same time is scary

 

[yezzir]

Kobe + LeBron on the the court together = UNSTOPPABLE

 

[Mexi]

who cares if they only have 3 bigs?
its not like the other countries have an unstoppable big guy anyways...well except for maybe Yao

this team is too stacked to not get gold

 

[NjNets15]

Other countries have big men too dude, everyone assumes that every team from europe is just a whole bunch of quick little white dudes, if you saw the last tournament with the US, the lost to the Greek team in 06 who had this Greek Dude they call Baby Shaq, theres other people out there,

 

[yezzir]

But do they have anyone as dominate as Dwight Howard (Superman) down low? haha

 

[Agent Zero]

no they dont your right HOWARD will domanite

 

[Mexi]

call me a typical arrogant american, but i think the US is gonna win decisively

 

[dez]

Its all up to if we're ale to play TOGETHER as a TEAM.

I love the fact Kidd's on the roster, he's a proven winner in the Olympics. Provides veteran leadership. Kobe's the best player in the world, LeBron is second. Melo has proven he can dominate in international competition.

I think we'll go undefeated, and win Gold. Show those other countries whats what.

Even though Paul is the Hands down best PG on the roster, I think Kidd should start over him. And even though I love Deron, we should have picked up another center.... or power forward

 

[sheed]

I cant wait to watch this, we should be able to rapeeee like no other.

 

[yezzir]

I cant wait to watch this, we should be able to rapeeee like no other.

Key word.. should. I can't help but think we'll screw up somehow.

 

[kadillak]

David West > Carlos Boozer or Jason Kidd

 

[kdogg]

David West > Carlos Boozer or Jason Kidd

Maybe Boozer, but not Kidd IMO.

 

[Mexi]

David West > Carlos Boozer or Jason Kidd

West wasnt on the short list of players to choose from