USA Basketball announces final roster for London Olympics – NBA News
USA Basketball today announced their final 12 man roster for the Summer Olympics to take place in London later this month.
Following two training sessions here in Las Vegas, U.S Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo announced a star studded roster despite the fact that many players are missing this year’s Olympics due to injury. The team is pending approval
of the U.S Olympic committee.
"We projected we would have difficulty getting down to a roster of 12, regardless of the number of injuries that have taken place, because they are such an outstanding group of people and athletes. The final selections keep us
in concert with our game plan to have athleticism, versatility and strong depth on our roster. I think our final roster epitomizes all of that,” said Colangelo.
The 12 man roster includes Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Andre Iguodala.
Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University will be the head coach of the team. He has previously led the U.S Basketball team to gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as the 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championships. His Assistant
coaching staff is made up of Jim Boeheim of Syracuse University, Mike D’Antoni and Nate McMillan.
The USA national team is currently training in Las Vegas where they will continue to attend training camp till July 12th, after which they will play an exhibition game with the Dominican Republic. They will then travel
to Washington D.C where they will participate in another training camp from July 13th to 15th, followed by an exhibition game against Brazil.
They will then fly to Manchester where they will continue their training from 17th to 18th July and will play an exhibition game on 19th July against great Britain at the Manchester.
"We have benefited so much from having a pool of outstanding players who are committed, and as a result the selection is difficult. But it's the best challenge that you could have because everyone has been so committed," said coach
Krzyzewski.
The London Games officially commence on the 27th of July with the U.S team the favourites to clinch the gold medal once again, though Spain has a formidable roster this time around and will be their main challengers.
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