Minnesota's all-star guard Anthony Edwards will be off to Paris this summer. Edwards will be just the fourth Timberwolves player in team history to earn a spot on USA Olympic roster.
USA Basketball Men’s National Team Managing Director Grant Hill and the USA Basketball Board of Directors made the announcement Wednesday morning.
The 2024 USA Basketball Men’s National Team will compete at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, set for July 26-August 11.
Kevin Love, who won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, is the last Wolves player to be on Team USA. Kevin Garnett won gold at the 2000 Olympics in Australia and Christian Laettner won gold at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Edwards, who was named to the 2024 USA Men’s National Team Player Pool in January, was a member of USA’s 2023 FIBA World Cup team, where he was named to the All-Star Five with averages of 18.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.1 steals in 25.9 minutes per game as the U.S. finished a disappointing fourth. Most of the main U.S. talent that is on the Olympic team sat that tournament out however.
Edwards just wrapped up his fourth NBA season averaging a career-high 25.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and a career-high 5.1 assists on the season, becoming the first player in franchise history to average 25+ points/5+ rebounds/5+ assists.
The Wolves are now getting set to take on Phoenix in the first round of the NBA Playoffs which begin Saturday.
As for the rest of the team, LeBron James plans to go back to the Olympics. Stephen Curry is planning on going for the first time. Kevin Durant will go there with his eye on history.
And they’re just part of a star-studded roster the Americans have assembled for the Paris Games.
James, Curry, Durant, Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburtonand Kawhi Leonard join Edwards as the 12 names on the current roster.
“We’re giving ourselves a chance to win with the talent we have,” USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill said on NBC’s “Today” show. “It’ll be exciting. It’ll be tough. It won’t be easy. We have great respect for all the other teams. But certainly, this is going to be an iconic roster.”
The group has seven players with 10 combined Olympic gold medals; Durant has three, James has two, while Adebayo, Booker, Holiday, Tatum and Booker each have one. Combined, the 12 players had averages of 24.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.6 assists this season, shooting 39% from 3-point range.
“The goal is to win the gold,” Hill said. “They know that.”
Durant has said since last year that he plans to play, which means he will pursue becoming the first men’s player in Olympic history with four basketball gold medals. He and Carmelo Anthony are the only men’s players with three Olympic golds; there are six women, all American, with at least four Olympic basketball golds. Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi each have five, while Teresa Edwards, Tamika Catchings, Sylvia Fowles and Lisa Leslie each won four.
James will seek a fourth medal, after winning bronze in 2004 and golds in 2008 and 2012. The other past gold medalists on the roster are Davis (2012), Adebayo (2020), Booker (2020), Tatum (2020) and Holiday (2020). The 2020 gold medals were won in 2021, since the COVID-19 pandemic forced a one-year delay of the Tokyo Games.
Curry will play in the Olympics for the first time, as will Leonard and Embiid — who chose to play for the U.S. last year after becoming an American citizen. The Cameroon-born center also could have chosen to represent France at the Paris Games.
The other first-time Olympians on the current roster are Haliburton and Edwards, both of whom played for the U.S. team that finished fourth at the World Cup in Manila last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.