LeBron James could apparently have played his last game in Team USA’s jersey. At least that’s what Jerry Colangelo, the Managing Director of USA Basketball, suspects. LeBron won two Olympic gold medals with the Americans in his career.
“Godfather time is taking its toll,” Colangelo told the other ESPN. “As a human being, your body can only cope with the stresses for a certain period of time in your respective sport and then it goes downhill.”
The Lakers star has completed his 18th season in the Association, from 2011 to 2018 the 36-year-old made it to the finals eight times in a row, and he has a corresponding number of career minutes on his account. He also played three times for Team USA at the Olympic Games, in 2004 he only won bronze in Athens, in 2008 and 2012 he won gold. He has not played a game for Team USA since then.
“LeBron has decided not to participate in the Olympics in recent years because he has a lot of other things in his life that he has to worry about,” said Colangelo, who no longer expects LeBron to do it again for Team USA runs up. “He sacrificed his time for us, we appreciate his contribution, but I think his time is over.”
Overall, the King made 68 appearances in Team USA’s dress, at the Olympic Games he averaged 11.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 24 games with 60.1 percent out of the field (20.4 Minutes).
However, Team USA will not have to do without star power in the future. At the upcoming games in Tokyo, the team will be led by Head Coach Gregg Popovich by Kevin Durant, which also includes Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal and Jayson Tatum to the top-class squad. Meanwhile, the nomination of Kevin Love caused a bit of astonishment, Colangelo defended this decision.
“Most of the bigs in the NBA are international players, not Americans,” said the 81-year-old. “We haven’t developed bigs as well as other nations.” Love as an additional big man is an “insurance”, so Colangelo.
.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2023/11/07/3821003-77652988-2560-1440.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
