Finally after a lot of deliberation, the list of candidates for the USA basketball team for the 2008 Olympics was announced. Hopefully, this basketball team is all set to redeem itself after the poor show at the 2004 Olympics when USA won the bronze medal.
The list includes 21 NBA stars and has the names of some of the finest NBA players. They are Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert Arenas, Shane Battier, Chauncey Billups, Chris Bosh, Bruce Bowen, Elton Brand, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Antawn Jamison, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, Brad Miller, Lamar Odom, Chris Paul, Paul Pierce, Michael Redd, Luke Ridnour, Amare Stoudemire, and Dwyane Wade.
J J Redick and Adam Morrison have also been invited; taking the roster to a total of 23 players.
The exclusion of Allen Iverson has raised a lot of media attention. However, it is felt that it could be because of Iverson's age and his style of playing that made the selectors exclude him from the roster. This is despite the important role he played in the 2004 Olympics.
According to national team manager Jerry Colangelo, the USA basketball is looking to form a team not of individual stars but of athletes, shooters, role players and distributors. Colangelo also hopes that Greg Oden, the high school basketball star, would be able to join the team for training this summer.
The selected players attended a training camp at Las Vegas followed by exhibition games in China and South Korea. Thereafter, a 12 man roster was selected for the World Championships in Japan.
2007 will see the team undergoing another training. This could be the regional Olympics qualifying. It will be followed by another training camp and exhibition games in 2008 just before the start of Beijing Olympics.
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