While the World keeps insisting that they their are continually closing the gap when it comes to International basketball, I’ll still argue that a team stacked with NBA Champions and multi-time All Stars from the USA are still the hands down favorites to win the gold medal when the 2012 Olympic Games begin later this Summer.
Yesterday, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo and a vaunted coaching staff led by Mike Kryzewski(Duke), Jim Boeheim(Syracuse), Nate McMillan(Blazers), and Mike D’Antoni(Suns and Knicks) had the arduous task of trimming down the final Team USA Basketball roster to the final 12 players that will be competing in the London Olympics.
While true superstar players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul were shoe-ins to make the squad, there was a much more heated battle brewing for the final few spots with six players(Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, Andre Iguodala, James Harden, Rudy Gay, and Anthony Davis) all vying for the final 3 roster spots.
With Team USA losing players like Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, and Chris Bosh because of injuries sustained during the 2012 NBA season, the selection committee was thought to have been leaning towards choosing a few younger players like #1 overall Draft pick Anthony Davis, Pistons forward Greg Monroe, or Kings center DeMarcus Cousins.
In the final cuts, Davis made it the farthest but was ultimately scratched because of an ankle injury sustained early in USA Team Trials, despite the fact that the 2012 squad will have only one true center on the roster in the form of reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler.
Despite being members of the 2010 FIBA World Championship team, both Rudy Gay and Eric Gordon were left off the final roster this time for the multi-talented, defensive stopper Andre Iguodala and two first time members, OKC’s James Harden and LA Clippers forward Blake Griffin. What are the odds that Griffin tries to equal Vince Carter in 2000, once leaping clear over a 7 foot Frenchman for poster dunk?
Here’s a look at the final 2012 USA Basketball Sr National Team:
Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love, Andre Iguodala, Blake Griffin, and James Harden
The USA Team now plays a series of exhibition games beginning on July 12th in a friendly game with the John Calipari coached Dominican National Team, which failed to qualify for the Olympics, losing to Lithuania late Saturday night. The actual Olympic Games begin for Team USA on Sunday, July 29th, with the squad taking on Tony Parker and France in the Preliminary Round.
Teams that pose the biggest threat to the US in Olympic play include Spain with Marc and Pau Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Juan Carlos Navarro, and Rudy Fernandez(no Ricky Rubio – injured), Argentina with Manu Ginobili, Brazil with Anderson Varejaeo and Leandro Barbosa, Russia with Andrei Kirilenko, Sasha Khan, and Timofey Mozgov, and Great Britain with Luol Deng and Pops Mensa-Bonsu
Check out the full press conference to announce the 2012 USA Team:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
