The USA Basketball men’s national team has to announce its final roster in a little less than a month for the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.
According to The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, Team USA will reportedly be missing the services of Los Angeles Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
“There are two other big names whose NBA team lost in the playoffs, perhaps you’ve heard of them?” wrote Vardon. “LeBron James and Anthony Davis are officially on vacation, after the Lakers lost in six games to Phoenix, but neither LeBron nor Davis is expected to play for Team USA due to their terrible seasons of injuries, according to a source close to both players. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are on the list, but their Clippers survived Game 7 against Dallas (which has no American stars in the Team USA pool) on Sunday — the final game of the entire first round.”
Both James and Davis missed a significant number of games in the regular season due to injuries. The injury bug also affected them in the Lakers’ loss to the Phoenix Suns in the first round.
Although James played in every game of the series, he was reportedly only about 85 percent healthy during that stretch. Davis, on the other hand, suffered a strained groin in Game 4, which caused him to sit out Game 5 and play just five minutes in Game 6.
The two All-Stars will look to recover this offseason to make another run at the NBA title next season.
