Who will represent Team USA in Olympic basketball? Three ex-Cats have a chance.
Only 12 men’s basketball players can represent the United States in this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
On Monday, USA Basketball announced the 44 finalists from which that team will be selected. Three of those finalists played at the University of Kentucky and two at the University of Louisville.
The 12-man roster will be announced later this year. The Olympic Games are set for July 24 through Aug. 9 in Japan.
Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat, Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns and Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers are the finalists from UK. Montrezl Harrell of the Los Angeles Clippers and Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz are the finalists from Louisville.
“Over the course of the remainder of the NBA season we’ll continue to monitor all of the athletes,” said Jerry Colangelo, who has served as the managing director of the USA Basketball Men’s National Team since 2005. “Selecting the 12-man USA roster will obviously be an extremely challenging and difficult process.”
Team USA will be attempting to win its fourth consecutive gold medal.
Nine players from the United States’ most recent gold medal winners in 2016 are part of this year’s pool: Harrison Barnes, Jimmy Butler, Demar DeRozan, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Draymond Green, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry and Klay Thompson.
This year’s finalists are headlined by LeBron James of the Lakers, a three-time Olympic medalist who skipped the 2016 Games. The team will be coached by San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich.
Of the Kentucky/Louisville contingent, only Davis has previously made an Olympics roster, winning the gold in 2012 shortly after wrapping up his national championship-winning season at Kentucky.
Eight of the 12 countries that will compete in Tokyo have already qualified for the Games. In addition to the United States, Argentina, Australia, France, Iran, Japan, Nigeria and Spain have claimed spots. The rest of the field will be filled through qualifying tournaments in June.
According to BigBlueHistory.net, 11 former University of Kentucky players have received Olympic gold medals: Cliff Barker (1948), Ralph Beard (1948), Alex Groza (1948), Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones (1948), Ken Rollins (1948), Billy Evans (1956), Adrian Smith (1960), Sam Bowie (1980), Tayshaun Prince (2008), Anthony Davis (2012) and DeMarcus Cousins (2016). Bowie was awarded his medal by the president of the United States due to the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow.
Adebayo, named an NBA All-Star for the first time this season, is averaging 16.0 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists for the Heat. Booker is ninth in the NBA in scoring at 26.7 points per game for Phoenix. Davis, also an All-Star, is right behind Booker at 26.5 points per game for the Lakers, to go with 9.2 rebounds and 2.4 blocks.
Harrell averages 18.9 points and 7.0 rebounds for the Clippers. Mitchell, an All-Star for Utah, is scoring 24.3 per game.