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Team USA Offering Window into the Psyches of NBA’s Next-Gen Leaders
- Updated: July 20, 2016
LAS VEGAS — Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant sat at dinner Sunday. It was the eve of Olympic training, and most of the USA Basketball team had gotten together at Anthony’s behest. Draymond Green, one of Durant’s new Golden State Warriors teammates, was there along with DeMarcus Cousins, DeMar DeRozan, Paul George, DeAndre Jordan and Kyle Lowry.
Besides the prime food and choice tequila, a magician showed up to do some fancy tricks.
Yet the most meaningful moments of the night arose organically in conversation. Anthony and Durant told colorful tales from the 2012 team’s past Olympic conquests, and as they did, it sank in for Durant that he and Anthony are the only two players back for the run in 2016.
“Letting the guys know how it is,” Durant said.
What is and what will happen on this U.S. Olympic team also is letting the NBA know how it is today with some of the game’s new leaders.
Durant’s epic departure from Oklahoma City to form a possible Warriors dynasty will continue to dominate NBA conversations for some time, but with another Olympics at hand, Durant can safely say from his point of view: “I’m just happy the process is over with.”
The focus now is on this summer job of forming yet another gold-medal-winning team.
Still, it is interesting to ponder that if Klay Thompson doesn’t save the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals with a barrage of remarkable shots in Oklahoma City, or if Green doesn’t get suspended for Game 5 of the NBA Finals, or if Harrison Barnes doesn’t miss, well, about everything in that series, Durant might not have made the same move in search of an NBA title.
But he did, and the decision has created an interesting portrait that has Thompson, Green and Barnes—whom Durant ushered out of Golden State by signing—all on this USA team together.
And while Green said “this ain’t really about the Warriors,” it is about melding a group of stars, and that is a job Durant has already been thinking about.
Although he was the team’s leading scorer in 2012, Durant knows he wasn’t the team’s leading personality.
“In 2012, LeBron [James] was our guy,” Durant said. “But he wasn’t in here bossing people around and telling them where to go, talking all the time. We all did it together. Everybody did it together.
“We knew he was our guy, but it wasn’t like we just sit down and LeBron talks to all of us while we’re sitting in chairs and he’s running the huddles. We’ve all got to do it together. That’s the best part of this group. …
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