As USA Basketball prepares for this summer’s FIBA World Basketball Cup in China, the time is now to begin to put together the roster for the August 31 – September 15 event.
There will be plenty of worthy candidates to be named to the roster as the NBA is obviously full of some of the best athletes in the world. The team will be coached by San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, and he and his staff will have their eye on a certain bearded superstar in Houston.
According to the New York Times’ Marc Stein, USA Basketball is hoping to receive a commitment from guard James Harden to join the team in China as Team USA goes for its third straight gold medal finish in the World Cup.
Harden just finished up a sensational season where he led the league in scoring at 36.1 points per game — which was also a career high — while also dishing out an average of 7.5 assists with 6.8 rebounds per game.
He already has two gold medals as a member of Team USA Basketball with the 2014 World Cup team that won in Spain and with the 2012 Olympic team that won in London. He was named a finalist for the 2016 Olympic team, but he later withdrew his name for consideration for an unspecified reason.
