The end goal of proving that he is still worthy and able to stay healthy enough to make the 12-man 2016 Olympics roster could serve as the added motivation that keeps Bryant engaged even if the season is lost entering the final months.
Advertisement
James took part in USA Basketballs minicamp, satisfying chairman Jerry Colangelos mandate that anyone wanting to be considered for the 2016 roster show up this week in Las Vegas. However, Bryant wasn’t there.
“What we decided to do was try to change culture, and once that developed, it began to snowball”, Colangelo said during ESPN 2’s telecast of Team USA’s scrimmage on Thursday night. Bryant was one of the first players to commit to playing in both the 2006 World Championships and 2008 Olympics, and deserves a small slice of the credit for restoring the United States as the undisputed best global team in the world. Each time the team won the gold medal. “We’ll see how my family feels about it”, James said on the campus of UNLV, where Team USA is holding a minicamp this week. The extra effort in a mostly meaning-less game shows Drummond wants to represent his team in 2016. The schedule crunch already has USA Basketball officials – mindful of the conflicting levels of interest among players, while also feeling pressure from several NBA owners who discourage participation because of possible injuries – discussing age limits for some of the competitions, though which ones are uncertain.
Sherinda Hoops reported USA Basketball Executive Director Jerry Colangelo wants Kobe Bryant in the final team. Although Kobe doesn’t want anything handed to him as Colangelo eluded to, it will be no easy task to prove he’s a better option then the younger stars he’ll be competing with. The second iteration of a pro Olympic basketball team was technically “Dream Team III”, which featured five guys from the first group (Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, David Robinson, John Stockton and Charles Barkley), as well as some new future Hall-of-Famers like Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Gary Payton and Reggie Miller.
“We’re talking about, he is – and Carmelo [Anthony] and Chris [Paul] and [Kevin] Durant and [Steph] Curry – they are USA Basketball”, Krzyzewski said.
The 30-year-old player clarified that he is not penciling as of now, “but this is the start of the process for all of us”. Fans can acknowledge Bryant’s shortcomings while simultaneously appreciating that he becomes much more interesting on the biggest stages. If I really want to head down Hot Take Road, I could say guys should work harder to ensure their spot in the top-11, taking into account one spot might be set aside for such an occasion. “We’ll see what happens”.
Advertisement
“We talk about it all the time, ” Anthony said of winning another gold medal with James and Paul.
