Add Tobias Harris‘ name to the growing list of USA Basketball players pulling out of consideration for this year’s FIBA World Cup. Harris, who re-signed with the Sixers for five years and $180MM this summer, has decided to focus on the upcoming NBA season, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets.
Anthony Davis, James Harden, Bradley Beal, CJ McCollum and Eric Gordon have also withdrawn from Team USA participation this summer, starting with training camp in Las Vegas early next month. Two other players, Damian Lillard and Kevin Love, are also undecided and will announce their decisions in the next few days, Joe Vardon of The Athletic reports.
Team USA will bring 12 players to the FIBA tournament. Among the players under consideration to replace the stars who have withdrawn, according to Vardon, include Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, D’Angelo Russell, Mike Conley, Josh Richardson, Thaddeus Young and Julius Randle. Select Team members could also be considered for the final 12-man roster, including Trae Young, Vardon adds. Top pick Zion Williamson has withdrawn from the Select Team this summer.
The original list of 20 invitees to the USA Basketball camp can be found here.
At the 1, Lowry & KembaW are yesses, Lilliard a maybe, Harden, Gordon, Beal & Mccollum out, Mitchell in could be a 1.
If Lilliard says no, Conley should be in.
Yikes hopefully we’ll have 12 players from the original roster
Russell and Randle, interesting.
To think the Laker’s could have worked it out to have Russell, Ingram, Lebron, Randle, Cousins
Just a quick poll. How many of you actually care about the FIBA World Cup? How many of you couldn’t care less?
I don’t care one iota about it. It doesn’t create a sense of national pride with me. It just seems like a waste of time and a chance for serious injury in meaningless games just like the World Baseball Classic.
I am not looking for a debate of the merits of the World Cup. I am legitimately curious if I am alone in my opinion.
Except the World Baseball Classic was great to watch last year and the teams are waaaaay more balanced. But I get your point. It’s not fun watching one team destroy the other especially when the US is sending out their C team and it’s still not going to be competitive.
That’s part of it, but the biggest is the whole nationalistic thing. I don’t like basketball players because of what country they were born in. And I am not going to be made to feel like I should root for a player just he was born in the same country as me.
But I also don’t feel right rooting against my home country because players I don’t like are on it. So I choose to just ignore the whole spectacle.
Root for whoever you want. Those are weird reasons.
Assuming I get the right channel (espn??), if the tv producers and commentators don’t give a crap about making a decent presentation and providing context and observing the actual game, then I will get too mad to enjoy the game and tune out. Which I pretty much expect. Hopefully Fran Fraschilla will have a role. He tries at least.
I hate & despise exclusive broadcasting rights. Game providers should have to compete for viewers.
It will be competitive with the C team they trot out there.
Hoops fans do
Yeah, I am a hoops fan and I don’t, so how about you stop trying to minimize people and just answer the question like a human being.
Every single contending team’s ‘star’ should be withdrawing. Any contending team’s developmental players should be jumping at a chance to play like Jonah Bolden.
Any lottery bound team should have a player represented.
I appreciate seeing players in a different context, apart from the team machine.
There are sports where top players don’t show for world competitions, but basketball is better than that.
No difference between the World Cup & the Olympics, it is all the same… The only difference is that Team USA is always weaker in the World Cup, like this year so it might very well not win it!