Report: USA Basketball Reveals Brand New 28-Player Pool

Today USA Basketballl announced the 28 players who will make up the pool for the next three summers as a lead-up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pool features old names and new as USA Basketball (USAB) chairman Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski created a mix of veterans and newcomers. Come check out who they selected…

According to Marc Stein and Dave McMenamin of ESPN, here is the pool, with the selections evenly divided among veterans and newcomers:

Veterans
Carmelo Anthony
Tyson Chandler
Kevin Durant
Stephen Curry
Anthony Davis
James Harden
Dwight Howard
Andre Iguodala
LeBron James
Kevin Love
Chris Paul
Derrick Rose
Russell Westbrook
Deron Williams

Newcomers
LaMarcus Aldridge
Bradley Beal
DeMarcus Cousins
Andre Drummond
Kenneth Faried
Paul George
Blake Griffin
Gordon Hayward
Kyrie Irving
Kyle Korver
Kawhi Leonard
David Lee
Damian Lillard
Klay Thompson

In a prepared statement, Colangelo spoke of the diversity and deepness of the roster, and how even the newcomers had come out over prior summers to take part in helping USA Basketball.

“This roster is extremely talented, deep and versatile.

“Continuity and familiarity with international basketball are critical parts in our success, and between our coaching staff and these 28 players we certainly have that. Every one of the selected players has been involved in USA Basketball previously and that speaks to how well our pipeline is working.”

Colangelo and Krzyzewski will select the 12-man rosters for the World Cup in Spain this coming August, and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. Two Kevin’s, Durant and Love, already announced last summer they’d compete in the World Cup in Spain, which runs August 30-September 14. James Harden is expected to join them.

Sources revealed to Yahoo Sports last night that Dwight Howard has “an intent” to play for the team in Spain this summer as an effort to repair his image after his last two years in LA and Orlando. Back surgery meant Dwight couldn’t play for the team when they captured gold at the 2012 Summer Games in London.

The 14 newcomers on the list have yet to play in a game at the senior national team level. The only player from the 2012 Olympic roster who did not make the cut was Kobe Bryant, who has reiterated on more than one occasion the 2012 Games would be his last.

Team USA basketball will get next summer off if it wins the World Cup in Spain this summer. If they finish out of first place, they’ve have to participate in the 2015 qualifying for the 2016 Olympics.

What do you think?

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