Team USA’s Select Team—a group of 17 players who will help the official Team USA roster prepare for the Tokyo Olympics in August—has been finalized, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The roster, which features some of the most young and promising players in professional basketball, will be coached by Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, Gonzaga University head coach Mark Few and Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley.
A roster of 13 young @nba standouts & 4 veteran players with international experience make up the 2021 USA Men’s Select Team that will train with #USABMNT July 6-9.
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 1, 2021
The roster features seven rookies from the 2020 NBA Draft class in Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves), Saddiq Bey (Detroit Pistons), Tyrese Haliburton (Sacramento Kings), Immanuel Quickley (New York Knicks), Isaiah Stewart (Detroit Pistons), Patrick Williams (Chicago Bulls) and Obi Toppin (New York Knicks).
Sophomores and three-year pros Miles Bridges (Charlotte Hornets), Darius Garland (Cleveland Cavaliers), Tyler Herro (Miami Heat), Keldon Johnson (San Antonio Spurs), Naz Reid (Minnesota Timberwolves), P.J. Washington , (Charlotte Hornets) enter the mix as well, giving the US Select Team an intriguing stable of talent.
Four players on the roster—John Jenkins (Bilbao Basket, Italy), Cam Reynolds, Josh Magette (Darüşşafaka Tekfen, Turkey) and Dakota Mathias— all have NBA experience, and currently either play overseas or are unsigned.
Managing Director of Team USA Basketball Jerry Colangelo noted he felt confident in the program’s selection of the aforementioned players.
“This USA Select Team continues the legacy established by previous Select teams of helping prepare our USA National Team for the Tokyo Olympic Games,” said Colangelo, USA Basketball Men’s National Team managing director.
“With all the uncertainty of how many of our Olympic Team members will be available for the USA training camp because of the overlap with the NBA Finals, we chose a USA Select Team consisting of many of the top young NBA players and four players who not only own international experience, but who played recently for USA Basketball in important national team qualifying competitions.
If we need to add players to fill out our roster for any of our exhibition games, we feel this USA Select Team has an excellent variety of skilled players to choose from.”
Since the USA Basketball Men’s National Team program was developed in 2006, there have been six Select Teams fostered to help with preparation for events (2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2021.)
The inaugural roster featured then up-and-coming players such as Andre Iguodala, Al Jefferson, David Lee and J.J. Redick.
Team USA’s Select Team begins their Olympic journey on July 25, where they will be competing in the Group A bracket.
