Roster Additions Announced for 2020 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team
-- USA Select Team Guard Keldon Johnson and NBA Veteran Center JaVale McGee Named to U.S. Olympic Team --
USA Basketball today announced the addition of USA Select Team guard Keldon Johnson (San Antonio Spurs/Kentucky) and NBA veteran center JaVale McGee (Denver Nuggets/Nevada) to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball roster. Johnson and McGee fill openings created after Bradley Beal went into health and safety protocol and following Kevin Love’s announcement Friday morning that he was withdrawing from the team due to his ongoing calf recovery.
“Our hearts truly break for Brad and Kevin, who did everything asked but for unfortunate and different reasons will be unable to join us in Tokyo,” said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball Men’s National Team managing director. “We welcome Keldon (Johnson) and JaVale (McGee) to our squad. Keldon has played well during our training camp and in the exhibition games in Las Vegas, and being a member of the San Antonio Spurs he is familiar with the things coach Popovich wants this team to do. JaVale has been involved in our USA National Team program since 2009, and we believe he will offer a valuable inside presence.”
The pair join previously announced U.S. Olympic Team 2020 members: Bam Adebayo (Miami Heat), Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns), Kevin Durant (Brooklyn Nets), Jerami Grant (Detroit Pistons), Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors), Jrue Holiday (Milwaukee Bucks), Zach LaVine (Chicago Bulls), Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers), Khris Middleton (Milwaukee Bucks) and Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics).
Because of their current involvement in the 2021 NBA Finals, Booker, Holiday and Middleton will join the USA squad after competition of the Finals.
The USA coaching staff is led by head coach Gregg Popovich (San Antonio Spurs) with assistant coaches Steve Kerr (Golden State Warriors), Lloyd Pierce and Jay Wright (Villanova University).
Johnson, a 6-foot-5 guard, attended the national team’s Las Vegas training camp as a member of the USA Select Team and was added to the USA roster for the team’s exhibition games. He has seen action in two of the USA’s three exhibition games in Las Vegas, averaging 5.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. Having completed his second season with the Spurs in 2020-21, he start in 67 of the 69 games he played in and averaged 12.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.
A 7-foot center, McGee completed in 2020-21 his 13th NBA regular season. Playing 33 games in 2020-21 for the Cleveland Cavaliers and 13 games for the Denver Nuggets, McGee averaged 7.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocked shots a game during the season.
The USA will complete its Las Vegas training camp with an exhibition game against Spain on July 18 (6 p.m. PDT) at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay. Ticket information is available online at https://axs.com/USABasketball.
The rescheduled Summer Olympic Games are being held July 23-Aug. 8 in Tokyo, Japan. Twelve nations will compete in the Olympic men’s basketball competition that will be held at the Saitama Super Arena. In addition to host Japan, nations qualified for the Tokyo Olympics men's basketball competition include Argentina, Australia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Nigeria, Slovenia, Spain and the United States.
The American men will open Olympic preliminary round play on July 25, against France (8 a.m. EDT), then will play Iran on July 28 (12:40 a.m. EDT) and will close out preliminary play on July 31 (8:00 a.m. EDT) versus Czech Republic.
A draw will take place following the conclusion of the group phase to determine the pairings of the quarterfinals. The winners of the groups and the second-placed team with the best result from the Group Phase are placed in one pot (D), while the two remaining second-placed teams and two best third-placed teams in another pot (E). Teams from the same group in the Group Phase cannot be drawn against each other in the quarterfinals. This stage of the competition is played in a knockout format, and the draw will produce an Olympic bracket for the road to the gold medal.
