Draymond Green surprised by talent influx in initial Team USA Player Pool
Earlier this month, Team USA released its initial player pool ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics which featured 41 players.
One notable name who was left off was Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, who recently returned after being suspended by the league indefinitely for hitting Suns center Jusef Nurkic in the face. Team USA Basketball executive director Grant Hill was open with why he left Green off the team.
In lieu of sort of what’s transpired this year, we made a decision to not have [Green] on this list with this particular point in time with the process,” Hill said. “He’s working through some things both on and off the court … So we at USA Basketball wanted to support him on his journey and we just didn’t feel that playing over the summer gives him the best opportunity to do what he needs to do.”
Though the 33-year-old’s perspective was different–feeling as if some of the players on the list passed him in terms of ability.
“I would like to believe that there’s some guys in that pool that I’m just not as good as,” Green said earlier this week, according to NBC Sports’ Michael Wagaman. “Didn’t quite think it would be so many great players in the pool because it just hasn’t been [that way] over the last couple of Olympic cycles. Then you look up and all of a sudden the ‘who’s who’ is there.
“I’m no idiot. You go with the who’s who and you figure it out.”
The list is headlined by LeBron James–who last participated in 2012–Kevin Durant, reigning MVP Joel Embiid, Damian Lillard, Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum, among plenty others. Should all of those aforementioned players make it, this group will be more talented than the one that won Gold at the 2020 Olympics (which occurred in 2021 due to COVID-19).
Green was a part of both 2016 and 2020 Gold Medal Teams.
“I’ve played in two more Olympics than I thought I would play in, which means I’ve got two gold medals than I ever thought I’d have,” Green said. “I’ll be alright.
“Would it have been nice to play in a third Olympics? Absolutely. But I’m also not going to sit here and act like if all those same guys that’s on the list was on the list in 2016 that I would ever have the first opportunity. When it works in your favor, you take what comes with it, which is the good. Then when it don’t quite work in your favor you have to take the bad that comes with it as well. It is what it is.”
The full truth may be somewhere in the middle; Draymond Green may be better than certain players on this list, but he’s not on the upper tier of players included, nor did his recent antics help him out.
We will see as the field narrows who’s in, and who’s out. But my initial indications are that Team USA’s squad is loaded, though I won’t sleep on any of the international squads (Canada, Germany, Serbia) as well.
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