Duke incoming freshman Cooper Flagg is among the many 15 People chosen to follow towards Staff USA subsequent week in Las Vegas, which is each an honor for him and a doable harbinger for his future on the nationwide workforce.
Every summer time wherein the U.S. males’s basketball workforce competes internationally, a “choose” workforce, often composed of younger NBA gamers, is picked to affix the American workforce of stars for coaching camp. Often, one or two of these gamers are elevated to the nationwide workforce, like Keldon Johnson was for the Olympics in 2021.
Flagg, a 6-foot-9 ahead and an early favourite to be the No. 1 choose of the 2025 NBA Draft, will probably be among the many gamers figuring out towards LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and the remainder of the headliners who’re searching for Olympic gold in Paris this summer time.
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USA Basketball declares 2024 Olympic roster
Flagg, 17, is the primary faculty participant to play or follow with the U.S. nationwide workforce since Doug McDermott and Marcus Good participated in a minicamp for NBA stars in Las Vegas in 2013. Six members of the present Olympic Staff (Durant, Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, Jrue Vacation and Kawhi Leonard) up to now served on choose groups, and 30 gamers who served on choose groups went on to play for USA Basketball at both a FIBA World Cup or the Olympics, in keeping with a information launch unveiling the newest U.S. choose workforce.
Jalen Duren, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Brandon Miller, Trey Murphy, Keegan Murray, Brandin Podziemski, Payton Pritchard, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Jabari Smith Jr., Jalen Suggs and Amen Thompson are the NBA gamers becoming a member of Flagg, in keeping with USA Basketball. Additionally on the choose workforce are Langston Galloway, a longtime USA Basketball veteran who has served as a follow participant for the nationwide workforce exterior of coaching camp, Nigel Hayes-Davis, who performs abroad, and Micah Potter, who performed for the Utah Jazz and within the G League final season.
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“As a former member of the USA Choose Staff, I understand how essential and enjoyable this chance is for every of those gamers,” stated Grant Hill, the managing director for the boys’s nationwide workforce, within the information launch. Hill is a Duke alum. “There’s a large quantity of expertise on this Choose squad with the numerous job of serving to the 2024 USA Males’s Nationwide Staff as they start their journey to the Olympics. Every of those athletes will play a job in our preparation as we additionally develop the nationwide workforce pipeline for the longer term.”
5 of those gamers — Duren, Pritchard, Murphy, Murray and Galloway — had been on the choose workforce final season that helped the People put together for the FIBA World Cup. For the second consecutive summer time, the choose workforce will probably be coached by Orlando Magic coach Jamahl Mosley.
Pritchard simply gained a championship with the Boston Celtics. Podziemski and Jackson-Davis play for nationwide workforce coach Steve Kerr in Golden State. Jaquez performs for U.S. assistant coach Erik Spoelstra on the Miami Warmth. Miller was the No. 2 choose within the 2023 NBA Draft. Suggs performs for Mosley on the Magic.
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(Picture: Rob Kinnan / USA At present)
