The United States men’s basketball team continues its preparations for the Olympic Games. On Saturday, July 20, the team will face South Sudan at the O2 Arena in London.
The game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on Fox. Fans who want to watch can do so via FuboTV or DirecTV Stream, both of which offer a free trial. SlingTV does not offer a free trial, but does have other promotional offers available.
Team USA is undefeated in warmup games thus far, most recently defeating Serbia and reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. Like Serbia, South Sudan is a team the United States will face in the group stage of the Olympics.
After dealing with a number of notable injuries and replacing Kawhi Leonard, the roster is back to nearly full strength since the start of Showcase games, with Kevin Durant back in practice.
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WHO: United States vs. South Sudan
When: Saturday, July 20 at 3:00 PM EST
Where: O2 Arena in London
Current: FuboTV (free trial); DirecTV Stream (free trial); Sling
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- *New customers who purchase tickets via VividSeats can get $20 off a ticket order of $200+ by using the promo code MassLive20 at checkout.*
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At 39, LeBron James is still the center of attention for USA Basketball. That won’t change in Paris
By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) — This is how the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team took the court to warm up for an exhibition game in Abu Dhabi: Stephen Curry led off with a layup, followed by layups by Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and Derrick White, then a short jumper by Devin Booker.
Everyone was greeted with a few cheers. And then LeBron James got the ball in his hands. The crowd immediately got louder, the volume rising until his dunk was greeted with the loudest roar the arena could muster.
“He’s still LeBron,” said U.S. assistant coach Erik Spoelstra.
At 39, entering the 22nd season of his professional career, the NBA’s all-time leader in points, soon to be the first male player to represent the U.S. at the Olympics in three different decades, he’s still LeBron. And that’s why USA Basketball was so eager to have him on this team heading to the Olympics in Paris later this month, because there’s no doubt he’ll make the team even more of a favorite to win what would be a fifth straight gold medal.
“Listen, once I got the okay from Savannah James, that’s the one I had to get the okay from to give up my summer to play basketball at 39,” James said, referring to his wife. “Once I got the okay from her, it didn’t take much convincing.”
Not after last summer, at least.
James watched the U.S. World Cup team — another team with 12 NBA players, but not 12 players with the pedigree of the players on this Olympic roster — struggle in the Philippines last summer and finish in fourth place. He didn’t like it. So he started calling around, trying to see if players like Curry would be willing to play in Paris in the hopes of reminding the world that the U.S. is still pretty good at basketball. He didn’t have to do much arm twisting.
“He was the first person I talked to in the fall about if this was something I wanted to do,” said Curry, who is making his Olympic debut. “And from there it was like, ‘Let’s do it.’”
LeBron’s Olympic History
James made his Olympic debut in 2004, just after his rookie season, on the team that finished third at the Athens Games. The Redeem Team followed in 2008, winning gold, before winning again at the London Games in 2012. James has not competed in the Olympics since then. It was fair to wonder if he ever would again.
The US won Olympic gold without him in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and in Tokyo three years ago, and now they are trying to win their fifth consecutive medal with him, probably for the last time.
“He’s just meant so much to the game of basketball, especially in my career since I was in high school and I followed him and he’s almost 40 years old now,” said U.S. forward Kevin Durant, who is chasing a fourth Olympic gold medal. “He’s still playing at an elite level, which is inspiring to me as well. And so any chance I get to be around LeBron, even if it’s just to grab a quick bite to eat or just see him for a few minutes, his energy is just infectious.”
It’s still there in clumps.
When the U.S. team opened training camp in Las Vegas, coach Steve Kerr asked two of his assistants—Speelstra and Tyronn Lue, both of whom coached James in the NBA—if the intensity with which he was training was normal. They nodded.
He goes all out, all the time, even with four NBA titles, even with a spot in the Basketball Hall of Fame and an eternal spot in the never-resolved Greatest Of All Time conversation that is stuck and a net worth of over $1 billion. He has nothing to prove and still runs himself through defensive slide drills like they’re going to decide Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Kerr sees a lot of similarities between James and Curry, who made four straight NBA Finals appearances as Golden State and Cleveland dominated the league from 2015 to 2018 — and now sees them working together for the first time. Curry sees them, too.
“I know exactly what he does,” Curry said. “I see a different side of him in the work he does and how he approaches practice, the way he talks and communicates. I see that side of it, which is really, really, really cool. I think he sees that in me, too.”
LeBron says ‘the game is in good hands’
The team is a perfect mix of everything James would have wanted if he had assembled the group himself. Veteran experience in him, Durant and Curry, even though Curry has never played in the Olympics before. Enough big players to protect the rim in Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo and Joel Embiid. Championship players — with three players from the current NBA champion Boston Celtics on the roster in Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday and White. Young stars in Haliburton, Booker and Edwards.
James doesn’t need to play a ton of minutes. The idea is for the Americans to use their depth, play a lot of players, keep everyone as fresh as possible, and know that no team has anywhere near the top-to-bottom talent on their roster that the US does.
And playing in one Olympics with many who likely qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Games — like Haliburton and Edwards — is also important to James.
“The game’s in good hands. … I mean, it’s just super cool that we can not only lead by example, but just be around them,” James said. “They’ve got their thing, so we’re not stepping on their toes or anything like that, but we just hope that we can continue to set a standard for them of what excellence is, because they’re already excellent. I hope that we just set the standard for them.”
In Paris, there will be plenty of people wearing James jerseys, mostly the Los Angeles Lakers, some from the US, probably also Miami and Cleveland. Everything he does and says will be in the news. Even at this point in his career, the fascination with James has not changed. Some love him, some don’t, but they all watch him. After all, as Spoelstra said, he’s still LeBron.
“I just feel incredibly honored to coach LeBron,” Kerr said. “And it’s definitely a lot better coaching him than coaching against him.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
