James Harden and Anthony Davis added to Team USA roster for the 2012 London Olympics - NBA update
The US basketball team for the 2012 London Olympics has two more players in its roster. James Harden of Oklahoma City Thunder and the college freshman Anthony Davis have been selected by the USA Basketball Association
for the prestigious event.
President of the association Jerry Colangelo revealed this in a statement recently;
“After a lot of deliberations, after reviewing our roster, we think these two additions strengthen our National Team program immeasurably. James Harden probably is the sixth man of the year in the NBA, and Anthony
Davis brings a dimension to our pool we don’t have. He’s young, but it’s exciting to think about the possibilities”.
Davis led the Kentucky into NCAA championship this year. He started all 40 games for the Kentucky Wildcats and averaged 14.2 points, 10.4 boards, 4.7 blocks. The 19 year old centre was also the ‘Most Outstanding
Player’ of the finals and is considered as the number one draft pick in the 2012 NBA draft.
His inclusion comes as a replacement for the injured centre Dwight Howard. Davis represented the USA basketball previously, during his high school years when he played in the Nike hoop summit in 2011. He has
also played for the USA Basketball’s Junior National team.
DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings was also considered as a contender for a spot in the national team, but Davis turned out to be the eventual choice. He was humbled after learning about his induction.
“It’s a tremendous honour to be this young and have a chance to represent my country,”
The other name that has been added is that of James Harden, the expected sixth man of the year. The OKC guard has had a stupendous regular season in which he averaged 16.8 points, 4.1 boards and 3.7 assists in
a total of 62 games.
In the 3 playoff games against the Dallas Mavericks, Harden has averaged 14.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.3 steals and his inclusion has come after Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose tore his ACL in
game-1 of the post season.
The recent development is surprising as president of association Jerry Colangelo announced a week ago that the existing 12 players list is final and no new players will be added in the roster.
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