The NBA season may be over, but thankfully fans still have high-level basketball to look forward to this summer, when the Olympics tip off in early August.
Of course for all the hoopla surrounding the red, white and blue, the storyline for Team USA is more about who won't be there, than who will. We've already learned that Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook and James Harden will all sit out, with reports surfacing Monday that LeBron James will probably skip Rio as well following a grueling NBA Finals run.
But while the star power is certainly fading for Team USA, there was one superstar who said Monday that he's looking forward to participating.
That man is Kevin Durant.
KD had a launch for his new sneaker in Austin, Texas, on Monday and told the Oklahoman's Anthony Slater that he'll be in Rio. Here is what Durant said:
I'm excited about it, I'm looking forward to it. The Olympics is an experience that doesn't come around every year as we know. And it's like, not all NBA players can play on it. To hand-pick the best 12 guys in the world, in the NBA at this point (from the US) and to put them on a team that's an accomplishment in itself. I'm excited about the opportunity, I'm looking forward to seeing who else is on the team. And we'll go from there.
This is great news for a Team USA squad that looks like it won't have its usual star power. Anthony Davis, John Wall and Blake Griffin were forced to withdraw because of injury. You have to assume that Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson also could pull out after a long playoff run.
At this point it appears the only players totally committed to Team USA are DeMarcus Cousins, Draymond Green and now, Durant.
The US should still be a comfortable favorite heading to Rio.
But it's still nice to know they'll have an established star, with an Olympic pedigree (Durant won a gold medal in London in 2012), to lead them.
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