USA Basketball studied every men’s game it has played for about two decades, and a clear trend eventually appeared: When the defense isn’t good enough, the Americans tend to get themselves into trouble.
The team for the Paris Olympics was built with that in mind.
Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Haliburton, Jrue Holiday, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Jayson Tatum were formally announced as members of the 2024 U.S. Olympic team on Wednesday, a group with nearly 200,000 NBA points, 84 All-Star Game selections and 10 Olympic gold medals between them.
“You want obviously talented individuals, but you want players who can blend and can fit and can play certain roles that you need,” Grant Hill, USA Basketball’s managing director, said Wednesday.