The United States will head to next month’s World Cup without LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony or Kobe Bryant, but will remain the team to beat with a potential line-up led by NBA most valuable player Kevin Durant.
USA Basketball announced this week the 19 players who will be auditioning for the American World Cup squad at a training camp in Las Vegas from July 28 to August 1.
Although some of the NBA’s biggest names declined invitations, the US talent pool is so deep they are unlikely to be missed when the final 12-man squad for Spain is selected.
All 19 players boast prior USA Basketball experience. The pool includes four members of the gold medal-winning 2012 Olympic team and five of the 2010 World Championship squad.
James, a four-time NBA MVP who last week left Miami Heat to join Cleveland Cavaliers, headlines a list of all-star absentees that includes Anthony, who signed with New York Knicks on Sunday, free agent Dwyane Wade and Miami’s Chris Bosh.
But with Oklahoma City Thunder’s Durant, the NBA’s leading scorer last season, and Chicago Bulls former league MVP Derrick Rose vying for spots, the US will not lack experience or quality when they fly to Spain for the Aug. 30-Sept. 14 tournament.
“We never really expected any of those players to participate in this competition,” said US team managing director Jerry Colangelo.
“That was a foregone conclusion, after conversations with them, that they would not.”
The team will be coached by Mike Krzyzewski, who guided the US to Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012 and a World Championship crown in 2010, compiling a near spotless 43-1 record in official FIBA or FIBA Americas competitions since 2006.
The reigning Olympic and world champions expect to trim the squad to 15, after the Las Vegas training camp, and then make final cuts before leaving for Spain.
“Basically, what we have learned over the years is be flexible, be adaptable and that is why the pool idea was brilliant,” said Krzyzewski.
The World Cup will involve 24 countries with the US in Group C for preliminary round play against Finland, the Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Turkey and Ukraine.