Me-first attitude shown by the many talented players who have chosen to stay home rates as shameful

It’s like a Draymond Green kick straight to your special place.

The world’s grandest athletic stage, providing a public platform for the greatest basketball stars alive to unite for a single cause.

Cherished history and untouchable names — Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson — forever attached to your personal résumé.

The nation tuning in, a country coming alive and the summer of 2016 defined by draping a gold medal across your neck in Rio de Janeiro, instead of another boring offseason dedicated to free-agency rumors and daily tweets.

But Cleveland’s King won’t be there. Neither will the Rockets’ Weird Beard, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul and a ridiculously self-absorbed collection of the NBA’s finest.

LeBron James gets a pass. He did

what’s never been done. He returned decades of lost belief to the misnamed mistake by the lake. He can now do pretty much whatever the heck he wants until training camp.

The rest of the Association’s me-first, brand-second, country-third superstars could use a week-long reminder course in why they’re actually playing basketball for a living.

If I’m commissioner Adam Silver, I’m privately fuming while considering a David Stern-style wrath-of-God attack on the Olympic decision-makers unable to sway the sport’s biggest names.

If I’m Jerry Colangelo, I throw up a little in my mouth after being forced to utter this public-relations nonsense.

“We’re extremely excited about the team we will field for the 2016 Olympics,” said the team’s managing director on Monday, after the country somehow found 12 players to represent its cause in Rio.

And if I’m Coach K, I’m wondering how I got snookered into doing this once-every-four-years thing again, when I’d really be better off convincing some overhyped high school sophomore that his life will be eternally changed by coming to Duke for just one year.

“I’m anxious to get on the court and … get to work,” said Mike Krzyzewski, who was instantly presented with a lose-lose scenario the second all those All-Stars decided they were a little too busy for the red, white and blue.

This isn’t some oldfashioned patriotic mumbo jumbo. Gold triumph or silver humiliation, the 2016 U.S. basketball team with or without James, Curry and Co., wasn’t going to make America great again.

An insult to the past

But we’re not that far removed from the awesome glory of the 1992 Dream Team in Spain. It wasn’t that long ago that The King, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and someone named Dwight Howard had to save the soul of U.S. basketball in China. This year? The Olympics texted. The NBA’s brightest stars said “New phone. Who’s this?”

The names that said no — either due to personal preference or injury — are far more impressive than the ones actually coaxed into uttering yes. Kawhi Leonard, Damian Lillard, Gordon Hayward, Anthony Davis, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin and John Wall joined the NBA’s regular season and Finals MVPs in missing Rio. And the no-shows wouldn’t just wipe the floor against the 2016 team — they could have fielded one of the flashiest 5-on-5 matchups since a round ball sank through a peach basket.

Thanks to the nays, Harrison Barnes is now an Olympian. So is ex-Rocket Kyle Lowry. As is DeMarcus Cousins, whose brilliant full-court athleticism might win over your summer heart — if he doesn’t get Coach K fired before the U.S. flies to Rio.

If you know your basketball — of course you do, since you’re reading the Chronicle — the cream of the 2016 buy-in crop is obviously legit. Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Paul George, Kevin Durant and Cousins could be surreal as a first five. Carmelo Anthony, DeAndre Jordan and Green off the bench is one heck of an initial eight.

This team should still win the gold in its sleep. The current state of the NBA is as good as it’s been since Michael Jordan retired the second time.

But this desperately pieced-together roster is far from the greatest version of the current generation. Barcelona ’92 would crack jokes in the face of Rio ’16. And the underlying statement made by all those too busy to attend is an insulting and disappointing one for the NBA. It’s about us, not you. We only play when we want to — and when we get paid like kings.

Durant can turn into a summer-time hero by being a golden No. 1 in Rio. Anthony, who’s never won anything in the NBA, can actually come out looking OK as a by-default spokesman for the USA.

But Harden should have said yes. His public image is more damaged than he knows and Rio would have only helped his comeback campaign. He also would have joined Mike D’Antoni’s team motivated and in shape.

Not that taxing

Curry, Westbrook, etc. are fooling themselves if they think they’re too tired or spread thin to wear gold.

And on the same day that the U.S. announced its weakest basketball roster in more than a decade, I kept thinking about the young American swimmers and divers on Sunday who couldn’t stop smiling and crying, just because they knew they were suddenly going to Rio.

That’s what the modern Olympics are still about. Not this watered-down NBA junk.