Warriors’ Stephen Curry, Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Confirm 2024 Team USA Olympic Interest
There’s going to be no shortage of star power for the United States men’s basketball team during the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant already told reporters he will participate, and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics told Jeff Goodman of The Messenger he plans to play as well. Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry also told reporters that he’d like to join Team USA.
“It’s the one thing I haven’t done,” he said, ESPN’s Kendra Andrews. “… I definitely want to be there. I want to be on the team.”
The United States will be under the spotlight during the Games after a disappointing fourth-place finish at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, and Durant may be the perfect player to lead the team.
After all, he was on the gold-medal winning squads at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics and is the leading men’s scorer in Team USA Olympic history. The Americans were clearly missing his presence when they fell short at the World Cup.
And now he won’t be the only star joining the fold, and the list of impact players surely won’t stop at Curry and Tatum.
After all, Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic reported last month that LeBron James was interested in going to the Olympics for the fourth time in his career and “has also called multiple stars to essentially recruit them to join him with USAB in Paris.”
Charania and Vardon listed Curry, Durant, Tatum, Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, Damian Lillard, De’Aaron Fox, Kyrie Irving and Draymond Green as players who could be interested in participating in the Games.
While there is something to be said about many of the international teams playing together with plenty of experience, that is still a ton of star power they would have to contend with in Paris. The Americans have also won four consecutive gold medals at the Olympics, so they were likely going to be the favorite even before some of the NBA’s biggest names expressed so much interest.
Anything less than a fifth consecutive gold would be fairly shocking if even a handful of those star players come together.