Los Angeles (AFP)
US basketball team coach Steve Kerr revealed that veteran stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry are eagerly looking forward to playing together for the first time in the 33rd Olympic Games being held this summer in Paris, and trying to lead their country to its fifth gold medal in a row, and the seventeenth in its twentieth participation.
The Golden State Warriors coach said, “I think LeBron and Steph are looking forward to playing together. I spoke to them, and they like the idea of playing on the same team, after playing against each other at the highest levels for many years.”
He continued, “They complement each other. Steve, with his play without the ball to ‘evade control,’ and LeBron, with his speed of transitioning, ‘from defense to attack.’ That will be interesting. I think they are eager to explore their capabilities, to see what they can offer.”
Although he won the World Cup twice in 2010 and 2014, Curry, 36, a four-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors under Kerr, is making his Olympic debut, while James, 39, was part of the team that won gold in 2008 and 2012 and bronze in 2004.
As a result of their failure to win the World Cup for the first time since 2014, and their coming in fourth place during the 2023 World Cup with a second-level squad that was absent of high-caliber stars, the Americans formed a terrifying team for the Paris Olympics that included in its ranks players such as three-time gold medalist Kevin Durant and Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns). , Anthony Davis (Lakers), Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves), league champion with the Boston Celtics, Jayson Tatum or Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers), in addition to Curry and James (Lakers).
The players will meet in Las Vegas on July 5 for their first training camp, which includes a warm-up match against Canada on July 10, before travelling to the UAE and then London, arriving in northern France where the group stage matches will be held in Lille.
The first test for the United States in Group C will be against Serbia on July 28, before facing South Sudan and a team that qualifies from the Olympic qualifiers (the fourth track scheduled for Puerto Rico, which consists of two groups, the first of which includes Mexico, Côte d’Ivoire, and Lithuania, and the second, Italy, the host country, and Bahrain).
Kerr continued, “I realized that what the players love is to play within one team, alongside their usual opponents (in the league). They (in the national team) are not the stars of their teams, on whose shoulders lies all the weight of achieving results and all the pressures. They must work together. Our role is with the crew.” Training is finding a style and game plans, without great complexity, due to lack of time, to lead them to success.”
“Our team is a constellation of stars. What I like is that they want more. They want the Olympic gold, and they joined the national team to get it. They know the size of the challenge. International competition is always stronger, and we have to give our best.”
In response to a question about the comparison with the first “Dream Team” that competed in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, led by legends such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, Kerr considered that there is a similarity with the current team, but the competitor has become different.
“This team (in 1992) did not face a challenge at all,” he explained. “Our current team consists of future members of the Hall of Fame, but we have to face completely different challenges (than the competing teams in 1992) with Serbia, France, Germany or Spain for example.”
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