LAS VEGAS — Kevin Durant is dealing with calf soreness that has kept him from being a full participant in USA Basketball’s training camp for the Paris Olympics, though he has assured team officials that he does not expect the issue to be a major one.
“Day-to-day,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “We’re just going to show an abundance of caution.”
Durant is the second forward who hasn’t been able to be a full participant in the U.S. camp that had its second day of on-floor workouts Sunday. Boston forward Jayson Tatum was excused from the first two days of camp workouts for personal reasons and is expected to be on the floor with his U.S. teammates for the first time on Monday.
“He’s frustrated,” fellow USA Basketball and Phoenix Suns teammate Devin Booker said about Durant. “He can’t be out there with us.”
It’s not known when Durant will be cleared to play or if he’s in Kerr’s thinking for the Americans’ first exhibition game of the pre-Olympic season against Canada on Wednesday. The U.S. has five exhibition games before traveling to Paris and opening Olympic play against Serbia on July 28.
“I think he tweaked it a few days before he got here,” Kerr said. “It’s not bad. He’s assuring me that it’s not bad. We’re just going to be really careful and smart and take it day by day and go from there.”
Durant could become the first four-time gold medalist in Olympic men’s basketball history this summer, after helping the Americans win titles at London in 2012, Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and the rescheduled Tokyo Games that took place three summers ago. He has scored 435 points in Olympic play, 99 more than fellow three-time gold medalist Carmelo Anthony for the most in U.S. men’s history.
