Jun 23, 2008 11:39 am US/Eastern
No Celtics On U.S. Olympic Basketball Team
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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(Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images)
Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images
There will be no members of the Boston Celtics on the 2008 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team.
The team was selected without a tryout and announced Monday.
LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, making his first Olympic appearance, will lead the U.S. team in Beijing in August, after a third-place showing in Athens four years ago. They'll have plenty of help.
Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd were among the 12 players named. They were joined by Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams.
The team will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and reconvene there July 20-25 to train and play an exhibition against Canada before heading overseas. The Americans open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10.
Although the Americans captured the gold at the Sydney Games in 2000, they no longer dominate international play as they once did. The talent gap has narrowed and many top NBA players have chosen to not play for the national team in recent years.
Now, the U.S. will field a team that appears loaded. Then again, the Americans went 5-3 in Athens and lost for the first time since NBA players started competing in 1992 even though they had James, Anthony, Wade and Tim Duncan. That group got routed by Puerto Rico before losing to Lithuania and Argentina, but this one is confident it will take the gold.
Bryant just won his first MVP and led the Los Angeles Lakers to the finals. James averaged 30.0 points -- just enough to beat Bryant for the scoring title.
Those two along with Anthony, Kidd and Dwight Howard started for a team that went unbeaten in the Olympic qualifying tournament last year.
Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire withdrew from Olympic consideration, apparently concerned about pushing his body too hard after knee surgery in 2005 and 2006. So did Detroit's Chauncey Billups, who would have had a tough time making the team given the depth in the backcourt.
Wade cemented his spot after Colangelo watched him work out in Chicago recently. He has had chronic soreness in his left knee since surgery in 2007, and his season ended in March. Wade started working out in Chicago in May, and James and Paul joined him to help sharpen his game. Colangelo paid a visit and left convinced the 6-foot-4 guard was healthy.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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