Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday and Devin Booker will all be playing when the United States looks to defend its Olympic men’s basketball gold medal in Tokyo.
That all three pushed through despite an exhausting and emotional National Basketball A Finals series that went six games where the Bucks came back from a 0-2 hole to win is a wonder.
There’s not much rest and well, in the case of Booker, it’s dealing with emotions that could still be raw after the loss. At times during the finals, it looked like he was waging a war by his lonesome as some of his teammates disappeared.
Nevertheless, I can understand all three of them keeping their word to suit up.
Opportunities like these do not come all the time. That they are even considered for the Olympic team is massive for them as a player and for their résumés, careers, and commercial ventures.
Playing in the NBA Finals and in stellar fashion should also give their confidence a massive boost. And now there’s the Olympics.
There are only two returning players from the 2016 Rio gold medal-winning squad—Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. The rest will be wearing those Olympic kits for the first time and that includes Bad Adebayo (Miami Heat), Jerami Grant (Detroit Pistons), Zach Lavine (Chicago Bulls), Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers), Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), Keldon Johnson (San Antonio Spurs), and JaVale McGee (Denver Nuggets).
Tatum and Middleton both suited up for the US in the 2019 Fiba World Cup where they lost to France in the quarterfinals.
This squad that is coached by Gregg Popovich has average age is 28 with an average height of 6-foot-7.
Some squads like Germany and France are taller than them.
Given that many of their stars opted not to play and considering Team USA’s early losses in scrimmages and the Covid situation that creates all sorts of uncertainty, one can surmise that it will not be any easy campaign for the Americans.
By the time this column sees print, the first assignment of the US—France—will have been played and it will not be easy as the French are seeded to win a medal.
The French have talent. They finished third in 2019 Fiba World Cup and have veteran NBA talent in Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum, Evan Fournier, Timothe Kongbo, and Frank Ntilinka plus savvy veterans and international talent in Nando de Colo and Andrew Albicy.
If the French must upend the Americans as they did in 2019, it will have to be with their defense. And they do have Gobert who can change shots.
They’ll also face Iran and the Czech Republic.
Iran has some talented young players but some ageing veterans who I have no idea how they will perform.
Sammad Nikkhah Bahrami is 38 years old. I am surprised he is still here along with Hamed Haddadi who is 36. Can Bahrami summon his old explosiveness and power?
The Czechs also have a veteran side and are led by Tomas Satoransky, Blake Schlib, Patrik Auda, Ondrey Balvin, and Jan Vesely.
It would be unwise for the Americans to look past their group. They are primed for an ambush somewhere if they let their overconfidence get the better of them.