Behind the Scenes of Team USA’s First Day of Olympic Training Camp: ‘Greatness in the Room’

Follow our coverage of the Olympic Games as we approach the Paris Games.

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LAS VEGAS — Kawhi Leonard was there and fully participated in the event. Jayson Tatum was neither.

And when the first day was over, Team USA coach Steve Kerr made a statement potentially so shocking for one of the 12 stars of the U.S. men’s Olympic team that a replacement might be necessary.

“It’s not 1992 anymore. Steph (Curry) and I are not going to be like (Dream Team coach) Chuck Daly and Michael (Jordan), we don’t play golf every day,” Kerr said.

No, no, the U.S. won’t need to replace Curry with someone less passionate about golf. He can afford a summer. Curry, an avid golfer who normally prepares for the American Century celebrity tournament he won last summer, is part of the team that assembled and practiced for the first time Saturday at the University of Las Vegas in preparation for the Paris Olympics, where the U.S. team will try to win a fifth consecutive gold medal.

This is arguably the most talented men’s basketball team ever assembled, featuring the NBA’s all-time leading shooter (Curry), the NBA’s all-time leading scorer (LeBron James), the USA Basketball’s all-time leading scorer (Kevin Durant), 11 current All-Stars, two current NBA champions (Tatum and Jrue Holiday), and an impressive array of former champions and gold medalists.

Twelve future Hall of Famers, as Kerr recently predicted. After seeing this group practice together for the first time Saturday at the start of training camp (with the exception of Tatum, who will join the Americans for practice Sunday but was busy signing his $314 million contract with the champion Boston Celtics), Kerr’s initial conclusion was simple.

Yes, “they are Hall of Famers.”

“It’s remarkable to see the talent in front of me as I address the team,” Kerr said.

Comparisons to the 1992 Dream Team — the first U.S. Olympic team made up of NBA players, led by the era’s best and most famous players, including Jordan, Charles Barkley and Larry Bird — have multiplied since Kerr’s roster was announced last spring. But during Friday night’s team meeting and Saturday’s shootaround, Kerr and his coaching staff used the time to show the current stars clips of opponents upsetting USA Basketball at last summer’s World Cup and in previous competitions.

While only two players on the current roster — Tyrese Haliburton and Anthony Edwards — were on the U.S. team that finished fourth at the World Cup, Durant, Tatum, Devin Booker, Holiday and Bam Adebayo were all on the Tokyo Olympic team that lost its first game to France, nearly got eliminated from the tournament and won a gold medal against the French.

For years, every U.S. men’s team has been warned about how the rest of the world has caught up. If they didn’t believe their coaches years ago, a combination of global stars emerging as NBA MVP candidates and the many losses USAB has suffered from 2019 to now have proven that point.

That’s why Kerr and Curry have work to do and not much golf to play.

“Chuck and Michael had a great time together on match days, playing 36 holes,” Kerr said. “Those days are long gone. We have our work cut out for us, despite the incredible team we have.”

Kerr said the first day of practice featured “controlled” scrimmages with plenty of lineup combinations. Speaking of which, after James finished his remarks to reporters Saturday and made his way through the throng of reporters toward the exit, he turned to The Athletic and said, “Off the bench, have you lost your mind?” — a light-hearted reference to a hypothetical lineup this outlet described in Friday’s training camp preview in which James was not among the starting five, due to defense.

Kerr could line up James, Durant, Curry and Joel Embiid (a two-time NBA scoring champion) together. In that scenario, there would be multiple guessing games at play, with opponents trying to figure out who, if anyone, they could possibly double-guard, while the Americans would try to figure out who to defend.

They could, for a change, play Embiid and Anthony Davis, two players who are essentially 7’4″ (Davis is listed at 6’6″ but has incredible reach and plays big), with James (who is 6’4″) and Durant (6’4″) and Tatum (6’4″) on the court in what is arguably the tallest lineup the Americans have ever fielded.

Kerr could also put Holiday, arguably the NBA’s best defensive guard, on this team next to Leonard, who, when healthy, is one of the league’s best defenders. Bam Adebayo is a perennial NBA defender who has started every game in previous Olympics. Where will he fit?

Maybe Haliburton, one of the league’s best passers, Edwards, who is considered the heir apparent to the aging American stars, and Devin Booker, one of the league’s best scorers, can just stand on the sidelines and play pickleball. (Just kidding — any of them could win a close game for Team USA.)

“You feel the grandeur in the room,” Holiday said.

NBA champion Jrue Holiday checks in.

🇫🇷 #USABMNT pic.twitter.com/T2NHMJbfHC

— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 6, 2024

Embiid has never played internationally, not in the Olympics or the World Cup. Born in Cameroon and a French citizen, he received his French passport on the promise (a perceived promise, if you ask Embiid, or an assurance, if you ask French officials) that he would play for Les Bleus. Embiid said his participation this summer was about more than which country he chose to represent. He said it was about the “dream” of being an Olympian — a quadrennial event that was huge in Embiid’s household when he was a kid.

If the French public boos him during the Olympics, Embiid said, so be it.

“I don’t think it should be anything, but if it’s more than that, I’ll accept it,” Embiid said. “I don’t think there’s anything worse than playing New York in the playoffs.”

Holiday can become the only men’s basketball player to win two NBA Finals and two Olympic gold medals in the same summer. Durant can become the first male player to win four gold medals in men’s basketball.

Leonard, like Embiid, has never played internationally, and this is the first Olympics for Curry, who has also played in two World Cups.

James and Davis have not competed in the Olympics since 2012, which was Durant’s first Games and Kobe Bryant’s last.

Most U.S. teams since 1992 have featured impressive numbers of stars, but none have been this impressive. That’s what I took away from the first day of camp, which included three weeks of practices, friendlies, trips to the Middle East and London, and then six crucial and potentially stressful Olympics in two French cities (Lille and Paris).

“The fact that I was moving, that’s what stood out to me the most,” Durant said. “You see these guys and you compete against them, and some of them, you probably don’t like them during the regular season. And then you meet them and you see who they are as people, you see their approach to the game. It’s inspiring to be around them.”

(Top photo of LeBron James at Saturday’s practice: Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)