{"id":100430,"date":"2024-10-10T18:28:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T22:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=100430"},"modified":"2024-10-10T18:29:42","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T22:29:42","slug":"kyrie-irvings-olympics-fly-by-leads-to-team-usa-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/10\/kyrie-irvings-olympics-fly-by-leads-to-team-usa-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyrie Irving\u2019s Olympics Fly-by Leads To Team USA Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the feel good mood after Team USA defeated France en route to a gold medal<\/a>, several players have been speaking up or about USA Basketball director Grant Hill\u2019s decision to leave them off roster<\/a>. In March, Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving<\/a> was reportedly deeply interested in playing<\/a> for the national team. In a recent interview with The Athletic\u2019s Sam Amick, he reiterated his desire<\/a> to play for the men\u2019s U.S. national team, preferably in the 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t say it was hurtful not to be able to try out,\u201d Irving says. \u201c\u2026It just was weird that we weren\u2019t able to try out and get together as a group because the USA team is not just 12 guys or 15 guys. \u2026 I won three gold medals… So there is a pride thing there, and I have history.<\/p>\n

There was such a great competitive pool that you can test yourself against because it\u2019s the best in the world. It\u2019s not every day you get a chance to go against (players of that caliber).\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyrie Irving\u2019s Olympics Fly-by Leads To Team USA Question<\/h2>\n

Irving\u2019s perspective is more sensible than sensitive, as he does have extensive experience with Team USA.<\/p>\n

Having won gold with USA Basketball in the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship, 2014 FIBA World Cup, and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, not being in consideration would\u2019ve been strange. Given that he was in contact with USA Basketball director Grant Hill, there\u2019s a chance that he was an option. Nonetheless, with Team USA senior\u2019s men national team eliminating tryouts last year<\/a>, his ability to make the team came down to Hill\u2019s assessment of how the puzzle fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had communication with Grant throughout the season, but I think it was more or less a surprise that I wanted to play. I think it was just a surprise that I wanted to play and (that) I was engaged\u2026 There\u2019s an extra motivation, just naturally, where, OK, I guess 2028 (is the plan)?\u2019 And maybe it\u2019s not for Team USA. I\u2019m just really proud of the (Team USA) guys, at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Irving was obviously not chosen. Team USA opted for a more defensive-minded group that included the Boston Celtics duo of Jrue Holiday<\/a> and Derrick White<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That being said, professional athletes are competitors. In the future, Hill may want to entertain the idea of reinstating tryouts. With the NBA talent pool as large as it is, what better way is there to separate the cream of the crop?<\/p>\n

What About Australia?<\/h3>\n

If Team USA and FIBA agree to let Irving play for Australia, it would be an intriguing scenario<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to entertain playing for Team Australia, man.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a strong, strong possibility at this point, depending on what the Olympic Committee does. But as a competitor, I was born in Australia. For me, it\u2019s not a hard transition to make, but I don\u2019t want to fall into the same, I would say, probably like \u2014 I\u2019m trying to be very intentional with my words here. I don\u2019t want to fall into the trap of being let down or disappointed when I know that there are other opportunities out there for me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Longtime Boomers head coach Brian Goorjian recently parted with the team<\/a>. Positive or negative, this could have a bearing on both Irving and the Australian national team\u2019s view of a potential partnership. Nonetheless, the U.S. national team isn\u2019t indomitable. Players like Denver Nuggets centerpiece Nikola Jokic<\/a> \u2014who plays for Serbia \u2014have proven that.<\/p>\n

With the right amount of talent, the Boomers might be one of the next teams to push Team USA to the brink of elimination. Irving could be a big part of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the feel good mood after Team USA defeated France en route to a gold medal, several players have been speaking up or about USA Basketball director Grant Hill\u2019s decision to leave them off roster. In March, Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving was reportedly deeply interested in playing for the national team. In a recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":100567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1608,30,62,3],"tags":[76,2122,406,2081],"class_list":["post-100430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olympics","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-nba","category-news","tag-australia","tag-grant-hill","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-team-usa"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}