LAS VEGAS — While many countries are still trying to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in men’s basketball, Team USA is already lining up guys to play.
Not just next summer, but potentially five summers down the line.
Firmly perched atop the basketball world but forever mindful of how they were once knocked off, the Americans took a few days last week to begin their preparations for 2016 — and 2020. And way beyond that.
“We’re trying to build something that can last forever,” said NBA star LeBron James.
The Americans’ practices in Las Vegas were short and light, though it’s not like they have a lot of work to do. Ten months before finalizing the Olympic team for Rio, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said if everyone is healthy, this will be the best U.S. squad ever assembled. The opening of the first practice in Las Vegas demonstrated what Colangelo and U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke have built.
The Americans posed for a team picture, five rows of about 40 players, coaches and officials representing the past, present and future of the program, from guys who have been in the program for a decade to others who are starting their international careers.
“We don’t only have a pool of players,” Coach K said, “we have a pool of gold medal winners. But you still have to bring new guys in because it’s going to keep going and even if, say a guy would not make the team next year, he potentially could be a star (later). That’s how you have to keep the culture going, and thank goodness these guys have recommitted each time.”
The national team is 75-1 since Colangelo implemented the program after the Americans’ bronze medal finish at the Athens Games in 2004. He and Krzyzewski built something in which the NBA’s best not only want to play, but want to keep doing it.
