US Olympic Basketball Team Aims to Outdo Beijing Show

The US Olympic basketball team for the London Games has been announced and the players aim to do better than four years ago, at Beijing, where the team won gold.

The team includes several members from the Beijing gold-winning squad, including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, apart from Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Deron Williams and Chris Paul. However, the team does not have some players from the squad that won at Beijing, such as Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and Dwight Howard. The average of this team is 26.1, with Anthony and James looking forward to their third Olympics.

USA breezed through to the final at the Beijing Olympics, without much ado, and the only challenge they faced was in the championship game against Spain that they won 118-107, pulling away in the final two minutes. Forward Carmelo Anthony avers that this team is even better than the 2008 squad, stating that it had all the pieces they needed.

The addition of James Harden, Andre Igoudala and Blake Griffin completed the team announced on Saturday, July 7, after the remaining players began training a day earlier. The final three were able to make it to the final roster owing to injuries to Anthony Davis, Rudy Gay and Eric Gordon. The injuries will leave the US team with just one option for centre, in Chandler, and in his absence could be forced to play some players out of their natural positions in the NBA.

While Williams, Paul, Anthony, Bryant and James featured in the gold-winning exploits at Beijing, Love, Chandler and Westbrook were part of the world championship team in 2010.

Tags: Spain

Category: Basketball, London Olympics