Despite still recovering from injuries, Carmelo Anthony, Chandler Parsons, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are among the nearly 40 players who plan to attending Team USA's Las Vegas minicamp in August.
Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant among injured stars planning on attending Team USA camp
Jerry Colangelo said the Aug. 11-13 event in Vegas is mandatory for any player who wants to be a member of Team USA.
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The camp, which will take place from Aug. 11-13, was described by USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo to ESPN as "mandatory" for those players interested in being considered for the 12-man roster that will be sent to Rio next summer to compete in the 2016 Olympics. Colangelo called the camp a "reunion" and said it will feature non-contact drills as well as "an all-star game of sorts" on Aug. 13, as opposed to intense practices and scrimmages.
The Knicks confirmed Anthony's planned attendance in an email to the New York Daily News. Although Anthony has been able to return to basketball activities after his February surgery to repair a torn patellar tendon in his left knee, he is still not at full strength. The Knicks, however, informed the Daily News that "they are OK with his involvement in the minicamp."
Like Anthony, Love is also recovering from surgery -- on his left shoulder -- but he, too, will be in Vegas, reports ESPN's Marc Stein. Love's teammate, Irving, who underwent knee surgery in June, will attend the camp as well, according to Stein.
The attendance of Durant, who dealt with foot issues all last season and underwent surgery in late March, was reported by USA Today.
Paul George, despite still working his way back from that horrific leg injury he suffered during a Team USA scrimmage last summer, will be in Las Vegas as well, according to Stein. Chandler Parsons, who is recovering from surgery he underwent after the season on his right knee, will also be there.
Invites to the minicamp were extended to nearly every one of the 34 players who were part of Team USA’s roster pool last summer, as well as a number of young stars who have not been part of USA Basketball before.
Others planning on joining Team USA next week are Blake Griffin, James Harden, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green,Harrison Barnes, Andre Drummond, Mason Plumlee, Bradley Beal, Gordon Hayward, Mike Conley, Michael Carter-Williams, Tobias Harris and Victor Oladipo, via ESPN.
Barnes, Carter-Williams, Conley, Green, Harris and Oladipo will all be making their USA Basketball debuts.
Kawhi Leonard, who has declined USA Basketball invitations the past two summers, also plans on attending, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
The one player from last year's pool to state he will not be attending is Damian Lillard, who Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski left off last summer's FIBA Basketball World Cup team.
“Last summer I didn’t make it, so I don’t know why I would go,” Lillard told CBS Radio’s The Jody Mac Show. “If I got cut last summer, I don’t think I’m a part of it.”
One star not expected to attend the camp is LeBron James, who reportedly decided in July 2013 that he was done competing for Team USA after leading the group to two gold medals. One can assume that if James changes his mind next summer and wants to be a part of the Olympic team, Colagenlo will still allow him to participate. But for now it appears that James' international basketball career has come to an end.
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