Finally, after much deliberation, the slate for the USA Basketball team for the 2008 Olympics has been announced. Hopefully, this basketball team is ready to redeem itself after the poor showing at the 2008 Olympics. 2004 when the US won the bronze medal.
The list includes 21 NBA stars and has the names of some of the best NBA players. They are Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert Arenas, Shane Battier, Chauncey Billups, Chris Bosh, Bruce Bowen, Elton Brand, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Antawn Jamison, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, Brad Miller, Lamar Odom, Chris Paul, Paul Pierce, Michael Redd, Luke Ridnour, Amare Stoudemire, and Dwyane Wade.
JJ Redick and Adam Morrison have also been invited; bringing the roster to a total of 23 players.
Allen Iverson’s exclusion has drawn a lot of media attention. However, it feels like it could be Iverson’s age and style of play that caused the selectors to write him off the list. This is despite the important role he played in the 2004 Olympics.
According to national team manager Jerry Colangelo, US basketball seeks to build a team not of individual stars but of athletes, shooters, role players and distributors. Colangelo also hopes high school basketball star Greg Oden can join the team for coaching this summer.
The selected players attended a training camp in Las Vegas followed by exhibition games in China and South Korea. Thereafter, a 12-man roster was selected for the World Championships in Japan.
2007 will see the team in another training session. This could be the qualification for the regional Olympic Games. It will be followed by another training camp and exhibition games in 2008, just before the start of the Beijing Olympics.