The Olympics can be a career-altering experience, even for the world's greatest players. It's a time when work ethic is observed, and little bits of helpful advice are shared. Team USA is loaded with several young, up and coming talents, but beside them even the greatest of superstars, like LeBron James, are currently finding themselves in new roles that could help the rest of their professional careers. Here, we're asking which player on the 2012 Olympic team's 12-man roster will benefit the most from playing in London.
Interesting discussion… and arguments can be made for all of them…
I really think Kevin Durant benefits most… he’s a great scorer, and a good rebounder, but his all around game and the amount of experience he has, pale in comparison to Lebron, who already has 3 MVPs, an olympic gold medal, a championship, and is a great defensive player. Durant has to grow (figuratively) a bit before he can start getting MVPs to go along with those scoring titles.
Anthony Davis, I think is gaining very valuable experience, playing at a high level of basketball and being surrounded by experienced all-stars and winners, so the value of his time on team USA is obvious. However, on the other hand, he’s not playing a whole lot, and one could argue that the teams they’re playing aren’t any better than college teams… Nigeria, Tunisia… pretty bad teams (obviously France and Argentina are good… although most NBA teams are better than them, in my opinion). But regardless, it’s a great experience for him… It will be difficult to gauge just what kind of impact it had, as we didn’t get to see Pre-Olympic-NBA-Davis.
Love is a young player just coming into his own as a superstar, and doesn’t have much experience on the big stage (no playoffs or olympics before this) and this is providing some experience…
Lebron is reaching new heights, with his tremendous season last year, great post season play, and like the article said, he’s finding himself in a new role in these olympics, and that’s usually good for a player to grow, and Lebron is doing great with his role.
I think Anthony Davis. He will never forget to wear his jersey again after that mishap.