LaVine gets shot to recruit as he commits to Olympics
Zach LaVine committed to joining Team USA for the Tokyo Olympics, his agent, Nima Namakian, confirmed Wednesday.
It’s good news for LaVine’s expanding brand, and it comes months after the Bulls guard was named to his first NBA All-Star Game.
It could potentially be even better news for the Bulls, though.
Previous Olympic gatherings have seen super teams formed as a result, whether it was the Big Three (LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade) in Miami or the attempted teaming of Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving three years ago.
Now, LaVine gets to join the likes of committed talent such as Damian Lillard, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Jrue Holiday, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Khris Middleton and Bam Adebayo while doing his best to sell the new Bulls culture as he chases a gold medal.
It’s quite the bow to wrap up LaVine’s season after he averaged a career-best 27.4 points, five rebounds and 4.9 assists on 50.7 percent shooting and 41.9 percent shooting from three-point range.
Of course this always could go the other way for the Bulls. All-Star Nikola Vucevic is signed for the next two seasons, but LaVine could become an unrestricted free agent after next season. The recruiter could easily become the recruitee.
Either way, this will be LaVine’s first Olympics, but not his first Olympic experience. He was a member of the Select Team in 2016, helping prepare Team
USA for the 2016
Rio de Janeiro
Games.