HRB's Serbia money gets better and better.
Who'd have thought we'd have trouble getting an all-star level guard to play for the USA? Just taking any active guard from all-NBA or all-stars in the last 4 years, in a (very) rough power ranking when healthy:
Harden: "Focusing on preparing for upcoming season" (7/19)
Curry:
Recent ankle & knee injuries (6/6)
Lillard: "Focusing on preparing for upcoming season" (7/23; teammate CJ McCollum had withdrawn a few days prior)
Irving: (
was tournament MVP in 2014, no indication of invite here)
Westbrook: (
played and won in 2010 and 2012, was never part of plans for 2019)
Walker:
Playing, starting
DeRozan: "Focusing on preparing for upcoming season" (7/23)
Oladipo:
long-term injury, never considered
John Wall:
long-term injury, never considered
Klay Thompson:
long-term injury, no indication he was considered
Chris Paul: (
played and won in 2008 and 2012, withdrew from 2016 Olympic process for age and recovery related reasons)
Kyle Lowry: Was slated to start; withdrew due to hand surgery from July (8/12)
Mike Conley:
Rumored to get an invite, but nothing confirmed
Bradley Beal: Planned to attend, but
cites the upcoming birth of his second kid as a reason to withdraw, something he
surely had no idea about when initially committing (7/22)
D'Angelo Russell: (
Was on 2016 Select team, rumored to be among possible new invites, nothing confirmed)
Jimmy Butler: (
never part of plans for 2019)
Gordon Hayward: (
played U19 in 2009, almost made 2014 and 2016 squads, no rumors of 2019 participation)
And that's before you get into:
CJ McCollum: "Focusing on preparing for upcoming season" (7/23)
JJ Redick: (invited 7/23, declined 7/26)
Eric Gordon: "Focusing on preparing for upcoming season" (7/20)
Donovan Mitchell:
Playing, starting
Devin Booker: "Focusing on preparing for upcoming season" (8/3,
link)
Landry Shamet: "Focusing on preparing for upcoming season" (8/2; also said he
really wanted to be a part of USAB, so you wonder why he'd withdraw from the Select team)
Marcus Smart: calf tightness during camp, really wants to play (8/7)
McCollum
had the best explanation for why players are dropping in a herd-mentality style. Doesn't mean I like it, but with a 12-man roster it does make a certain amount of sense.
Lastly, we're damn lucky that Cameroon had to try to qualify for the World Cup last September without any of its NBA talent (and narrowly failed in the attempt), because if they were running out a starting frontcourt of Joel Embiid, Pascal Siakam and Luc Mbah a Moute, which they might very well next summer in Tokyo, that would fucking terrify me.