LeBron heads Olympic roster
Durant to go for record fourth gold
LeBron James plans to go back to the Olympics. Stephen Curry is planning on going for the first time. Kevin Durant will go there with his eye on history.
And they’re just part of a star-studded roster the Americans have assembled for the Paris Games.
USA Basketball has gotten confirmations from 12 players — James, Curry, Durant, Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and Kawhi Leonard — that they will accept invitations to be on the Olympic roster.
The amount of talent on the U.S. roster is staggering. Of the 12 commitments, seven finished the season ranked among the NBA’s top 15 scorers per game. James is the league’s all-time scoring leader, Curry the all-time leader in 3-pointers, Haliburton won the assist-per-game title this season and 10 were AllStars this season as well.
Durant will attempt to become the first men’s player in Olympic history with four basketball gold medals. He and Carmelo Anthony are the only men’s players with three.
Colleges
Falling in line with a recent court order, the NCAA has revised its transfer rules
to allow athletes be be immediately eligible to play no matter how many times they transfer — as long as they meet academic requirements. The new rules will go into effect immediately, though in reality they have already been enacted through a lawsuit filed late last year.
College basketball
Duke’s Jeremy Roach is declaring for the NBA draft and entering the transfer portal if he returns to college. Roach, a 6-foot-1 guard, averaged 14 points this past season while helping Duke reach the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.
• The U.S. Basketball Writers Association announced that it will name its annual women’s national coach of the year award after Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma. Auriemma, 70, has led UConn to 11 national titles while winning 1,213 games.
• Clemson guard Chase Hunter is entering the NBA draft, but maintaining his eligibility should he want to return for a sixth year in college. Hunter averaged 12.9 points a game this past season.
Tennis
Two matches into a comeback from his latest injury, Rafael Nadal lost to Alex de Minaur, 7-5, 6-1, in the Barcelona Open. It was only the fifth time Nadal had lost in his long history of playing a tournament that he’s won 12 times.
• Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur battled their way into the quarterfinals of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany. Gauff defeated 134th-ranked Sachia Vickery, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, despite 15 double faults. Jabeur came back from a break down in the third set to defeat Ekaterina Alexandrova 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1).