A few years ago, Kobe Bryant and some of the NBA’s elite players (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard) decided to team up and commit themselves to Team USA’s goal of winning the gold medal.
Fortunately, the Redeem Team was able to head to Beijing and absolutely dominate the competition. They did struggle against Pau Gasol’s Spanish squad in the gold medal game, but Kobe Bryant was able to lead the team to victory and ultimately a gold medal.
Now all of those elite players that were on the Redeem Team have decided not to return to Team USA this summer as they say they are in need of some rest from a tough NBA season.
Once it was announced that all the big-names were not returning to Team USA this summer, many people thought we were going to see the team struggle once again, but despite not having the star power they had in 2008, Team USA will still have solid chance of winning the gold once again with the youngest scoring champion in NBA history leading the way in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant.
As always, Team USA can only keep a certain number of players and a lot of their current players will get the boot this summer.
This Wednesday head coach Mike Krzyzewski and company started to narrow down the roster by making the first cut by sending Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans (Sacramento Kings), Gerald Wallace (Charlotte Bobcats), O.J. Mayo (Memphis Grizzlies) and JaVale McGee (Washington Wizards) home.
This was a bit a of a surprise in my opinion as I would have thought that Evans and Wallace would have been sure bets to make the team, but with players like Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant leading the way at their positions, I guess it makes sense.
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