James, Durant headline pool for Olympic team

LeBron James is putting himself in position to play in a fourth Olympics, and Kevin Durant and Chris Paul their third.

The NBA stars were among the headline names on the list of 35 players chosen Friday for USA Basketball’s national team pool of players for 2018-20.

Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis also were on the list of players the Americans can choose from if they qualify for the 2019 Basketball World Cup and 2020 Olympics.

The remainder of the list: Golden State’s Klay Thompson and Draymond Green; Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry; Washington’s John Wall and Bradley Beal; Portland’s Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum; the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan and Tobias Harris; Detroit’s Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond; Indiana’s Victor Oladipo and Myles Turner; Cleveland’s Kevin Love; Minnesota’s Jimmy Butler; New Orleans’ DeMarcus Cousins; San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard; Oklahoma City’s Paul George; Houston’s Eric Gordon; Boston’s Gordon Hayward; the Lakers’ Isaiah Thomas; Charlotte’s Kemba Walker; Dallas’ Harrison Barnes; Memphis’ Mike Conley Jr.; Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton; and Phoenix’s Devin Booker.

The players are expected to attend minicamp in Las Vegas from July 25-27, when U.S. coach Gregg Popovich will take over the team for the first time.

“It’s quite an idea, or thought, when you think about being on the court with all these players,” Popovich said. “That’s quite a brotherhood. There’s a lot of talent there, these guys have friendships, they enjoy getting together, the culture’s been established with USA Basketball and everything that they’ve done. So to see that in action and to see all these guys come together in Vegas this summer is going to be pretty exciting.”