Cavaliers forward Kevin Love has decided to withdraw from Team USA and won’t travel to Japan for the Olympics, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
“I am incredibly disappointed to not be heading to Tokyo with Team USA, but you need to be at absolute peak performance to compete at the Olympic level and I am just not there yet,” Love said in a statement released by his agent, Jeff Schwartz (Twitter link).
Love’s concerns about his physical condition stem from a right calf injury that caused him to miss much of this past season. The 32-year-old played in just 25 of the Cavs’ 72 games.
He sat out Monday’s loss to Australia, but Team USA coach Gregg Popovich said afterward that it wasn’t because of injury, notes Joe Vardon of The Athletic (Twitter link). He notes that Love and the Cavaliers were hoping the Olympics experience would help him return to form next season.
Love didn’t see much playing time in the other two exhibition games and “struggled mightily” during training camp, Vardon adds (Twitter link).
Love’s announcement adds to the last-minute chaos for the U.S. team, which lost Bradley Beal on Thursday and saw Jerami Grant placed into health and safety protocols. Team USA officials were already working to fill one roster opening and now will have to address another one.
Who will replace him? JJ Redick? Alex Caruso? TJ McConnell? Dougie McDermott? Those may be the only options, for obvious reasons. (If you’re thinking anything other than SHOOTING, shame on you.)
Jeez is this post a joke? Team USA in big trouble if they have to go that far down the list
Gordon Hayward, Duncan Robinson, or Kevin Huerter can fit the bill. Decent players too!
hayward would get hurt picking up colangelo’s phone call
That’s how Love got hurt.
Sure, get more wingdings. The team needs more wings, even white ones. The whole team should be wings, to show how modern we are. Black and white, living together, all slathered in BBQ sauce.
I predict team USA will go down in winging defeat, and a team with guards, forwards & centers will win. Then there’s race. Any white who shows will be known as a token for years.
These international teams can’t carry our jockstraps. Stop reading the news and believing the “sky is falling”. Team USA just needs focus
Casor are you aware of recent history? It seems not. Team USA is on a losing streak. Are you aware that scouts are categorizing players as points, wings and bigs, not G,F,C or 1-5? Then there’s all one race present, and nearly all wings. Yet all racial efforts involve pushing for more blacks and calling it inclusion.
I thought they’d consider Luka Garza. He seems like he’d be sorta perfect for FIBA plus he fills a need (big). And of course he’s a white guy, I mean shooter lol
Thinking TJ McConnell and shooting would be like thinking Aaron Craft and shooting… who would do that?
Good. Bum didn’t deserve a spot.
Probably for the best, he was a diversity hire from the jump. I’d love to see Brandon Ingram on this team
Nothing wrong with a diversity hire! What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. They just picked the wrong rep. Matter of fact we need a Hispanic rep and an Asian rep too (Jeremy Lin? Was he born here?) . This is America, let everybody get a chance to rep the set!
Lol I’m beginning to think x% actually “is” Kevin Love and all the comments finally got to him
I used to watch and care about basketball.
The game will continue to flourish without your attention trust me
Not sure about the flourishing part.
Which LA legend would you rather draft to ur squad if the best available guys were Kevin Love (UCLA 2008), Evan Mobley (USC, 2021), Marques Johnson (UCLA, 1980) or Demar DeRozan (USC, 2009)?… U get them as rookies
1/ K-Love
2/ DMDR
3/ Mobley
4/ Johnson
I’m beginning to think we’re not winning gold this year.
Randle? Westbrook? George? Zion?
why dont they play more rookies like Lamelo or maybe Lonzo. they cant be worse than KLove
The team is in panic no doubt!
If they are smart, they would find all the replacements from the US Select Team who have been training all along.
They need size and playmaking. An actual center would help. Lopez should be their first call. Perfect for the international game. And a young point guard should replace Beal. Lamelo or Ja would be perfect
Why young? A useless constraint, perhaps related to a dreamer’s personal vicarious-fantasy needs, not a team need.
I have no Love for Kevin’s game anymore. Bad selection!
KLove is COOKED as a player. Shouldnt even be in the NBA anymore either.
He’s far from his all-star caliber years but at 12pts and 7 rebounds during an injury plagued year he’s still serviceable jusy waaaaayyyyy overpaid at this point. Cavs never should’ve given him that contract.
Let’s go Randle next man up.
At least Love himself was able to recognize how little he has left at the moment and chose to do the right thing and bounce. It is sad that his apologists includig Popovich couldn’t see that when the team was being chosen.