No Curry. No James. It won’t matter for U.S. basketball in Rio
stars keep playing for their home countries as long as they can. Dirk Nowitzki was still plugging away last summer at age 37 for Germany at the European championship.
But with a grueling NBA schedule just completed and another one around the corner, many of America’s best have decided this is not the year to add a summer tournament to their schedules.
Does this open up an opportunity for Nigeria or Venezuela to win the gold in Rio? Well, no.
The U.S. team starts with one no-arguments superstar, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder. No other country will feature a player who nears his all-around skills.
Curry is missing, but the other Splash Brother, Klay Thompson, is on the team, along with his Warriors teammates Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes. Though James is taking the summer off, the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers are represented by Kyrie Irving.
The American team is notably versatile. Except for the two centers, DeMarcus Cousins and DeAndre Jordan, and the two point guards, Irving and Kyle Lowry, every player is listed from 6-foot-7 to 6-9, and many play multiple positions.
Paul George is also on the team, despite having suffered a serious leg injury while training for the 2014 World Cup of Basketball, which caused him to miss nearly a full NBA season.
The team is rounded out by Jimmy Butler, DeMar DeRozan and Carmelo Anthony, playing in his fourth Olympics. In recent days, Anthony has been socializing with Durant in New York and working out with him in what amounts to an unofficial wooing of the Oklahoma City star before he officially becomes a free agent next month.
Would Durant really consider joining Anthony on the work-in-progress New York Knicks, who traded for Derrick Rose last week? Probably not, but Anthony can keep trying right through the Olympics, where the Americans’ status as gold-medal favorites is enhanced by the other contenders’ relatively weak rosters.
Spain has been the secondbest team in the world for many years, but it is led by a 35-year-old, Pau Gasol. The status of his brother Marc, who broke his foot with the Grizzlies in February, is unclear, and Serge Ibaka, the Orlando Magic star, will not play, citing the long NBA season. That leaves Ricky Rubio as Spain’s No. 2 star.
Other contenders have even fewer NBA-quality players. Lithuania, runner-up to Spain in last year’s Euros, is led by Jonas Valanciunas, a solid center for the Raptors who would not have come close to the Olympics were he an American.
Other teams have legitimate NBA stars who are getting toward the end of their careers. Manu Ginobili of Argentina is 38. Anderson Varejão and Leandro Barbosa of host Brazil are 33. Tony Parker and Boris Diaw of France are 34 (and France has not yet qualified for the games).
While all these teams have good players from the European leagues, even the most passionate Europhile ac- knowledges the huge gulf between the quality of the NBA and Italy’s Serie A or Spain’s Liga ACB.
Knowing that the Americans are likely to win the gold medal won’t make you rich. Sky Bet currently offers odds of 1-14 on the United States — a $14 bet will earn you just a buck. Spain is the second favorite at 10-1, and Brazil is 20-1.
After the group stage, the Olympic tournament moves to the single-elimination quarterfinals, semifinals and final, so a fluky loss is not impossible. But even without its biggest stars, the United States is playing with by far the best team.