Newly-minted Boston Celtics point guard Kemba Walker might just have landed himself the starting role for Team USA’s 2019 FIBA World Cup squad.
After Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard joined the growing group of players electing to eschew the opportunity to play for Team USA in September — just a week or so before the start of fall training camps for the NBA — Walker is now the likely favorite for the starting role.
The former UConn star, however, has no plans of sitting out the 2019 World Cup as many of his peers have elected to do (per the Athletic’s Jared Weiss) “I will be there for sure. I could care less about who’s dropping out.”
For now, only the Toronto Raptors’ Kyle Lowry and teammate Marcus Smart — a combo guard — remain in the fold as options to be the starting point guard and, with the recent champion on the mend for surgery on a thumb ligament, Lowry may not be ready to play come time for the September contests.
There’s only a chance that Team USA will invite another point guard or two to the training camp roster, especially with so many players opting not to play for the national team this go around. Nonetheless, the roster currently has all 16 slots full.
For Smart, who was named to Team USA’s Select Team in 2014 and 2016, the prospect of playing with the most talented teammates of his career has emerged as an unintended outcome of all of the turbulence unfolding with the national team in recent weeks.
While there are no guarantees about the starting role, Walker (and backcourt companion Smart, for good measure) are enthusiastic about the opportunity. After such a tumultuous season, teammates Tatum and Brown may also revel in the opportunity to play together representing their country on a global stage before the NBA’s regular season even begins.
For a team desperately in need of this decade’s version of “Ubuntu”, a better storyline would be hard to invent.
