LAS VEGAS — This is how the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team took the floor for warmups before an exhibition game in Abu Dhabi: Stephen Curry opened with a layup, followed by ones from Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and Derrick White, and then a short jumper from Devin Booker.
All were met with some cheers. And then LeBron James got the ball in his hands. The crowd got louder immediately, the volume rising until his dunk was met with the loudest roar the arena could muster.
“He’s still LeBron,” U.S. assistant coach Erik Spoelstra said.
At 39 years old, starting the 22nd season of his pro career, the all-time leader in NBA points, soon to become the first men’s player to represent the U.S. at the Olympic Games in three different decades, he’s still LeBron. And that’s why USA Basketball so badly wanted him on this team that’s headed to the Paris Olympics later this month, because there is no question that he makes the team even more of a favorite for what would be a fifth consecutive gold medal.
“Listen, once I got the clearance from Savannah James, that’s the one I had to get the clearance from to give up my summer pretty much to play basketball at 39 years old,” James said, referring to his wife. “Once I got the clearance from her, I didn’t have to have much convincing.”
Not after last summer, that is.
James watched the U.S. World Cup team — another team with 12 NBA players, but not 12 players with the pedigree of those on this Olympic roster — struggle last summer in the Philippines and end up with a fourth-place finish. He didn’t like it. So, he started calling around, seeing if players like Curry would be willing to play in Paris with hopes of reminding the world that the U.S. is still pretty good at basketball. He didn’t have to twist a lot of arms.
“He was the first person I talked to in the fall about would this be something I would want to do,” said Curry, who’ll be making his Olympic debut. “And from there it was like, ‘Let’s get it.’”
LeBron’s Olympic history
James made his Olympic debut in 2004, fresh off his rookie season, on the team that finished third in the Athens Games. The Redeem Team followed in 2008 and won gold, then the team at the London Games in 2012 won yet again. James hasn’t played in the Olympics since. It was reasonable to ask if he ever would again.
The U.S. won Olympic gold at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo three years ago without him, and now tries for a fifth in a row with him back in the fold for presumably the final time.
“He’s just meant so much to the game of basketball, especially in my career since I was in high school following him and he’s almost 40 years old now,” said U.S. forward Kevin Durant, who is seeking a fourth Olympic gold. “He’s still playing at an elite level, which is inspiring to me as well. And so, every chance I get to be around LeBron, even if it’s just having a quick bite to eat or just seeing him just randomly for a couple of minutes, his energy is just contagious.”
It’s still there in bunches, too.
When the U.S. team opened camp in Las Vegas, coach Steve Kerr asked two of his assistants – Spoelstra and Tyronn Lue, both of whom have coached James in the NBA — if the intensity that he was practicing with was normal. They nodded.
He goes all out, all the time, even with four NBA titles, even with a Basketball Hall of Fame spot and perpetual place in the never-to-be-solved Greatest Of All Time conversation locked up and with a net worth exceeding $1 billion. He has nothing to prove and still runs himself through defensive slide drills like they’re going to decide Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Kerr sees plenty of similarities between James and Curry, who went head-to-head in four consecutive NBA Finals when Golden State and Cleveland ran the league from 2015 through 2018 — and now gets to watch them team up for real for the first time. Curry sees them as well.
“I know exactly what he’s about,” Curry said. “I get to see a little different side of him in the work that he puts in and how he approaches practice, the way he talks and communicates. I get to see that side of it, which is really, really, really dope. I guess he gets to see that from me as well.”
LeBron says ‘game is in great hands’
The team is a perfect blend of everything James would have wanted if he was putting the group together himself. Veteran experience with him, Durant and Curry, even though Curry hasn’t played the Olympics before. Plenty 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 on the roster in Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday and White. Young stars in Haliburton, Booker and Edwards.
James won’t have to play huge minutes. The idea is for the Americans to 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 as the U.S. does.
And playing one Olympics with many who will be likely looked at for the Los Angeles Games in 2028 — like Haliburton and Edwards — is important for James as well.
“The game is in great hands. … I mean it’s just super cool that we can not only show by example, but also just be around them,” James said. “They have their thing going as well, so we don’t step on their toes and nothing of that nature, but we just hope that we can continue to set a standard for them of what excellence is all about because they’re already excellent. I hope we’re just setting the standards for them.”
In Paris, there will be plenty of people wearing James jerseys, mostly Los Angeles Lakers ones, some USA ones, probably some Miami and Cleveland ones, too. Everything he does and says will make news. Even at this point in his career, the fascination with James hasn’t changed. Some love him, some don’t, but they’re all watching him. After all, like Spoelstra said, he’s still LeBron.
“I just feel incredibly honored to be coaching LeBron,” Kerr said. “And it’s definitely way better to coach him than coach against him.”
