SH Blog: USA Basketball News

Photo NBAE / Nathaniel S. Butler

Chicago — USA Basketball held their first practice since the gruesome injury that befell Indiana Pacers All-Star Paul George. Practice was held at the Quest Multisport Center in Chicago, where the team will remain until after their exhibition game versus Brazil at the United Center on August 16. They will then travel to New York where they’ll continue training before exhibition games at Madison Square Garden versus the Dominican Republic (Aug. 20) and Puerto Rico (Aug. 22).

The team will then travel to Gran Canaria, Spain for their final week of practice and last exhibition game against Slovenia (Aug. 26) leading up to the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

For right now, there are 16 players vying for 12 available roster spots. However, there was nearly just 15.

Golden State Warriors All-Star point guard Steph Curry told ESPN that he questioned playing for Team USA after George’s injury.

Reacting to Paul’s injury is natural. I think just talking to my family and guys in the Warrior front office, just kind of seeing where everybody was, but at the end of the day it’s a great honor to wear this jersey and to have these experiences and I’m going to take advantage of it.”

Fortunately for USA Basketball, the NBA’s best three-point shooting point guard is still committed to playing.

Curry wasn’t the only person to address Paul George’s injury. USA Basketball president Jerry Colangelo expressed relief due to the update on his recovery and also stated that the team has plans to honor their fallen star.

At the team meeting today I addressed them and welcomed everyone and then covered a few things including the Paul George situation. The good news about his status — that it’s expected 100 percent recovery. So everything’s well there. We’re going to be wearing some shooting shirts, kind of united behind Paul George, that we’re going to use during these friendly games. We wanted to wear (a patch) on our uniforms (for George) but FIBA will not allow anything on the uniforms. But we haven’t forgotten, we want everyone to rally behind that.”

Unfortunately, as was detailed by our own Chris Sheridan a week ago, Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star and reigning league MVP Kevin Durant opted to withdraw from the team, citing that he “could not fulfill [his] responsibilities to the team from both a time and energy standpoint.”

Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski expressed to ESPN that he was surprised to learn of Kevin Durant’s exit.

Yeah, I was [surpised]. No question. I was.

“It’s one of those things; you don’t replace Kevin Durant. You look different. And so we have today and [Friday] to look different before we play a really good team. That’s of concern for me because we were pretty far along. We had our best camp ever in Vegas since I’ve coached [Team USA]. Those guys were terrific. We had more in [game plan-wise], but we had more in to play a certain way. And then Kevin deciding not to play … it’s concerning.”

As reported by AP writer Jay Cohen, Colangelo said that Durant “found himself in a situation where he had no choice.” When asked to clarify the situation, he replied, “just contractual situation.”

CBS NBA writer Zach Harper questioned the possible contract situation to which Colangelo had alluded to, positing that it may, perhaps, have something to do with his rumored endorsement deal with Under Armour.

That raises questions about what the contractual situation could be. Durant has been rumored to be possibly working out a deal with Under Armour for his next shoe contract, and it has been rumored to be worth as much as $325 million over the next 10 years. …

Cohen clarified on Twitter that he never named Under Armour as the reason for the contractual situation. Perhaps another sponsorship Durant has with another company could be the reason for the situation in which Durant apparently had no choice.

Meanwhile, as Durant deals with sponsorships, Team USA experienced their second injury in their first practice Thursday.

Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins got tangled up with New Orleans Pelicans center Anthony Davis, according to reports from both the NBA and ESPN, while both big men hit the floor going after a loose ball. However, USA Basketball tells it differently.

The hard play produced one scary moment when DeMarcus Cousins and Kenneth Faried collided and both went down. While Faried bounced up rather quickly, Cousins stayed down for several uncomfortable seconds before trainers helped him to his feet.

“They helped him walk to the sidelines and he remained out of practice through the rest of the scrimmage with ice on his knee, and a precautionary MRI will determine if there is anything serious.”

The MRI results were in favor of Team USA, as they announced the results in a statement:

USA Basketball National Team member DeMarcus Cousins suffered a knee-to-knee collision with a teammate during Thursday’s USA practice in Chicago. According to USA Basketball team physician Dr. Lisa Callahan (Hospital for Special Surgery/New York Knicks), an MRI was done and revealed no structural damage. Cousins is listed as day-to-day.”

Cousins took to Twitter to thank all the fans for their concern.