By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Team USA suffered from numerous withdrawals prior to the 2019 FIBA World Cup and was minus nearly all of its major stars in the tournament, where it finished at a historic-worst seventh place.
It won’t be like that, however, in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
USA Basketball director Jerry Colangelo told Marc Stein of the New York Times that so far the response by the players that the team has approached so far has been “great.” It is expected that “virtually every top American player” will answer the call and be available for the preliminary roster from which the 12-man squad for the Olympic Games will emerge. The preliminary squad will be announced by the end of January.
Bradley Beal, Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, James Harden, Damian Lillard, Kevin Love and CJ McCollum were some of the players that withdrew from participating in the training camp ahead of the World Cup, after being named to the preliminary roster.
USA has won the gold medal in the all Olympic Games since 1992 with the sole exception of 2004 in Athens. The American team was then eliminated by Manu Ginobli’s Argentina, that went on to win the gold, and finished third after beating Lithuania in the bronze-medal game.