USA Basketball’s men’s stars may be almost as far away from the United States as you can get on the globe — in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, for a couple of exhibition games — but the news from home of an assassination attempt of former President Trump still hit hard.
Coach Steve Kerr — whose father Malcolm was assassinated by extremists in 1984 when he was the president of the American University of Beirut in Lebanon — was particularly moved and called it a “demoralizing day for our country” when speaking to reporters, via Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
“This is a time where we feel very proud to represent our country wearing USA on our chest, competing in the Olympics,” Kerr said. “We’ve talked to the players about how important it is to show the best version of us as human beings to represent our country in a respectful, dignified manner. It makes you want to do that even more so, because this is really shameful for us to sit here and think about what happened and what’s going on in our country…
“Obviously what we’re doing is very trivial, just playing basketball, but we want to put our best selves out there to try to give people a glimpse of what our country can be about,” Kerr said. “And then you hear something like this and it’s just so demoralizing and obviously so sad.”
Stephen Curry echoed those sentiments, saying, “It’s obviously a very sad time in general.”
There is news on the court for Team USA, which faces an outstanding Australian team on Monday — noon Eastern time here in the States, broadcast on FS1 — in an exhibition that should prove a good test. Australia has a roster full of NBA players — Josh Giddey, Josh Green, Dyson Daniels, Joe Ingles, Jock Landale and more — but also plays a true FIBA style (as does Serbia, who the USA faces Wednesday). The USA looked good in its exhibition opener, beating Canada in Las Vegas, but the Canadian style of play is more like the American and NBA style than the true FIBA/International style the USA will face in Paris.
In USA Roster news:
• Derrick White has arrived in Abu Dhabi and went through his first practice with the team.
White replaces Kawhi Leonard on the roster. Leonard officially withdrew from the team because of ongoing knee issues, although that was more of a decision by the USA Basketball/Clippers than a decision by Leonard. White likely will not get a lot of run as the sixth guard behind Stephen Curry, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton and Anthony Edwards (although Edwards is used more as a wing at times). Still, he brings defense and 39.6% shooting from 3 last season, as well as experience as the guard working off the ball, to the USA roster.
• Kevin Durant has yet to go through a practice with Team USA and is not expected to play against Australia, the second Paris tune-up game he has missed.
Durant has a sore calf, but both he and Kerr have said he is close to a return.
“I feel better. I hurt it working out, probably about 10 days before camp. So just working through it, taking it day by day,” Durant said in Las Vegas.
Those days are piling up and if they continue much longer USA Basketball Managing Director Grant Hill, Kerr and Durant are going to have to have a serious discussion about what is next. That day is not now, and Durant is such a unique talent and a guy who was the best player in the 2020 Tokyo Games that he gets extra leeway. Hopefully he returns to the court soon, but it is something worth monitoring.
