LAS VEGAS – This is how the US Olympics men’s basketball team took the floor for warm-ups before an exhibition game in Abu Dhabi: Stephen Curry opened with a layup, followed by Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and Derrick White, and then a short jumper from Devin Booker.
Everyone was received with some applause. And then LeBron James got the ball in his hands. The crowd immediately grew louder, the volume increasing until his dunk was met with the loudest roar the arena could produce.
“He’s still LeBron,” U.S. assistant coach Erik Spoelstra said.
At age 39, entering the 22nd season of his professional career, the NBA’s all-time points leader, soon to become the first male player to represent the U.S. at the Olympic Games in three different decades, he is still LeBron. And that’s why USA Basketball wanted him so badly on this team heading into the Paris Olympics later this month, because there’s no doubt he makes the team even more of a favorite for what would be a fifth straight gold medal.
“Listen, once I got permission from Savannah James, she was the one I had to get permission from to give up my summer to play basketball at age 39,” James said, referring to his wife. “Once I got her permission, I didn’t need much convincing.”
Not after last summer, of course.
James observed the US team at the World Cup — another team with 12 NBA players, but not 12 players with the pedigree of those on this Olympic roster — struggled last summer in the Philippines and finished fourth. He didn’t like it. So he started calling to see if players like Curry would be willing to play in Paris in hopes of reminding the world that the U.S. is still very good at basketball. He didn’t have to twist many arms.
“He was the first person I talked to in the fall about whether this was something I wanted to do,” said Curry, who will make his Olympic debut. “And from then on it was like, ‘Let’s do it.’”
James made his Olympic debut in 2004, shortly after his rookie season, on the team that finished third at the Athens Games. Team Redeem followed in 2008 and won gold, then the team at the 2012 London Games won once again. James has not played in the Olympics since. It was reasonable to ask if he would do it again.
The U.S. won Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo three years ago without him, and is now trying for a fifth in a row with him back, probably for the last time.
“He has meant a lot to basketball, especially in my career, since I was in high school and he is almost 40 years old,” said the US forward. Kevin Durant, who is looking for his fourth Olympic gold. “He still plays at an elite level, which is also inspiring to me. And so whenever I get a chance to be around LeBron, even if it’s just to grab a quick bite to eat or just randomly see him for a few minutes, his energy is just contagious.”
It’s still there in groups too.
When the U.S. team opened camp in Las Vegas, coach Steve Kerr asked two of his assistants — Spoelstra and Tyronn Lue, who coached James in the NBA — if the intensity with which he was training was normal. They nodded.
He gives it his all, all the time, even with four NBA titles, even with a spot in the Basketball Hall of Fame and a perpetual place in the never-to-be-resolved conversation about the Greatest of All Time, closed and with an asset net worth of more than US$1 billion. . He has nothing to prove and still does defensive slide drills as if they were going to decide Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Kerr sees a lot of similarities between James and Curry, who faced each other in four consecutive NBA Finals when Golden State and Cleveland ruled the league from 2015 to 2018 — and now he can see them truly team up for the first time. Curry sees them too.
“I know exactly what he wants,” Curry said. “I can see a slightly different side of him in the work he does and the way he approaches practice, the way he speaks and communicates. I can see that side of it, which is really, really, really cool. I think he will see that for me too.
The team it’s a perfect mix of everything James would have wanted if he were putting the group together himself. Veteran experience with him, Durant and Curry, although Curry has never played in the Olympics before. Lots of bigs to protect the rim in Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo and Joel Embiid. Championship players – with three players from the current NBA champion, Boston Celtics, in the squad: Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday and White. Young stars in Haliburton, Booker and Edwards.
James won’t have to play big minutes. The idea is that the Americans use their depth, use a lot of players, keep everyone as fresh as possible, and know that no team has anything close to the top-to-bottom talent on their roster like the U.S. does.
And playing in an Olympics with many likely to be considered for the 2028 Los Angeles Games – like Haliburton and Edwards – is also important to James.
“The game is in great hands. … I mean, it’s really cool that we can not only show by example, but also be around them,” James said. “They also have their stuff going, so we don’t step on their toes or anything of that nature, but we just hope that we can continue to set a standard for them of what excellence is, because they’re already excellent. I hope we’re just setting the standards for them.”
In Paris, there will be a lot of people wearing James jerseys, mostly Los Angeles Lakers jerseys, some from the US, probably some from Miami and Cleveland as well. Everything he does and says will be news. Even at this point in his career, the fascination with James hasn’t changed. Some love him, some don’t, but everyone is watching him. After all, as Spoelstra said, he’s still LeBron.
“I am extremely honored to coach LeBron,” Kerr said. “And it’s definitely a lot better to coach him than to coach against him.”
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