LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid headline arguably the most star-studded Olympic men’s basketball roster since the 1990s as the U.S. eyes a fifth consecutive title in Paris.
The 12-player team was announced Wednesday, 100 days out from the July 26 Opening Ceremony.
The group includes, for the first time on an Olympic roster, four players who previously won an NBA MVP (James, Durant, Curry and Embiid), plus 11 2024 NBA All-Stars and the most combined prior All-Star selections (84) of any Olympic team.
The seven returning Olympians are the most for any U.S. men’s team in Olympic history. Every player on the team previously made an NBA All-Star team for the second time in Olympic history after 1996.
2024 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Roster
The original Dream Team for the 1992 Barcelona Games — the first to include NBA players — had three previous MVPs — Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan — and a combined 68 All-Star selections at the time, one fewer than the 1996 team.
At the start of the Barcelona Games, Bird, Johnson and Jordan owned a combined 10 NBA titles. Currently, James, Durant and Curry own a combined 10 NBA titles.
The record for oldest U.S. Olympic men’s basketball player — held by Bird, who was 35 years, 7 months in 1992 — will be broken by James (39), Curry (36) and Durant (35 years, 10 months).
Overall, this is the oldest U.S. Olympic men’s basketball roster in history with an average of 30 years, 9 months old when the Games open. The previous oldest team — 1996 — averaged 29 years, 10 months old.
James returns after playing on gold-medal teams in 2008 and 2012 and a bronze-medal team in 2004. This summer, James, Diana Taurasi and Spain’s Rudy Fernandez can become the first basketball players to have Olympic careers span 20 years, according to the OlyMADMen.
Durant led the U.S. in points per game at the last three Olympics, and in Tokyo broke Carmelo Anthony’s career Olympic points record for an American man. Durant is up to 436 points, which is 52 points shy of Lisa Leslie’s U.S. Olympic points record for women or men.
He can also break his tie with Anthony for the most Olympic men’s basketball gold medals.
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Curry goes to his first Olympics, though he was on gold-medal FIBA World Cup teams in 2010 and 2014. The U.S. head coach is his head coach with the Warriors — Steve Kerr.
Embiid had three options for international basketball and chose the U.S. over France and Cameroon. He will play in his first major international tournament.
Leonard, the NBA Finals MVP in 2014 and 2019, is also making his senior international debut. In 2012, he was on the U.S. select team of young players who practiced with the Olympic team after his rookie season.
Tatum, Booker, Adebayo and Holiday were all on the Tokyo Olympic team.
Davis was on the 2012 Olympic team before his NBA rookie season as the youngest U.S. Olympic men’s player in history.
At last summer’s World Cup, the U.S. finished fourth with no players who had previous Olympic or World Cup experience. Edwards and Haliburton return from that team to make their Olympic debuts.
Biggest challengers to U.S. medal hopes
Other medal-contending teams include the three medalists from the 2023 World Cup: Germany, Serbia (possibly with Nikola Jokic) and Canada (possibly with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander).
France beat the U.S. in group play in Tokyo in 2021, then lost to the U.S. in the closest Olympic final in 49 years (87-82). Victor Wembanyama is expected to make his Olympic debut for the French at the Paris Games.
At least one of Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo will not be in Paris. Their nations, Slovenia and Greece, were drawn into the same last-chance Olympic qualifying tournament in early July, and only the winner qualifies for the Games.
The U.S. Olympic men’s 3×3 roster was named last month. The women’s 5-on-5 and 3×3 rosters are expected to be named later this spring.
Olympic basketball schedule, groups: U.S. men, women open with gold-medal rematches
The 2024 Paris Olympic men’s and women’s basketball tournament draws determined preliminary groups.
