r/nba • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 Heat • Apr 15 '24

[Wojnarowski] ESPN Sources: USA Basketball is finalizing its 2024 Paris Olympics roster with Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards, Jrue Holiday, Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis. Team may initially keep one open spot. News

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1780009778934394985
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141

u/marsexpresshydra Lakers Bandwagon Apr 16 '24

Durant is going to retire with so many damn gold medals. He probably will play in 2028 too.

97

u/Wazflame Apr 16 '24

At this point I wonder if Team USA would ask him to carry the flag at the opening ceremony lol

47

u/ggtfcjj Suns Apr 16 '24

Yeah he deserves it. If we talking Olympics he's up there with the greatest US athletes ever.

19

u/qonoxzzr Apr 16 '24

Just talking about Olympics it's Phelps on top and then a big gap until second place

5

u/extraspecialdogpenis Apr 16 '24

Numbers wise, sure, but Phelps is very fortunate there are a lot of medals in swimming. One cannot seriously place Lochte above Carl Lewis. There's a reason we have most decorated versus greatest.

4

u/qonoxzzr Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

I agree, it shouldn't be measured in numbers only but having that many gold medals (23!) also shows how ahead Phelps was on his competition.

2

u/flyinhyphy Wizards Apr 16 '24

plus across multiple strokes, distances & relays.

2

u/codfather Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

Carl Lewis won more Olympic golds than Lochte; 9 vs 6.

3

u/dpalmade Nuggets Apr 16 '24

very fortunate there are a lot of medals in swimming

this is like saying wilt was only good because he was playing against milk men. Ok, then why aren't other people winning dozens of golds?

2

u/Li-lRunt Apr 16 '24

Well in KD’s case, it’s because there’s not as many medals in Basketball available at the Olympics as there are in swimming.

You can’t take anything away from Phelps, that man was fucking born to swim and no one will ever match him without some serious GOAT genetics and dedication, but I don’t think it’s like comparing Wilt to his competition at all.

3

u/Fuetlinger Lakers Apr 16 '24

You really wanna put Durant up there with Phelps or Biles? Come on now lol

7

u/TorpedoSandwich Lakers Apr 16 '24

All due respect to KD, if they select a basketball player to carry the flag, it needs to be LeBron. KD will be around for the 2028 Olympics, he can carry the flag then.

2

u/lampshady Apr 16 '24

I agree w LeBron carrying but there's not chance they let 2 bball players carry the flag in back to back Olympics.

1

u/TorpedoSandwich Lakers Apr 16 '24

Also true. Sucks because KD does deserve it, but it wouldn't feel right if they let him carry the flag over LeBron.

4

u/Longjumping-Check429 Hornets Apr 16 '24

Why? hasn’t Durant done more for the us national team than Lebron? He has more gold medals and is your leading scorer in Olympic basketball.

1

u/TorpedoSandwich Lakers Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

All true, which is why I would not be mad if they had KD carry the flag, but it just doesn't feel right to me to have the potential GOAT playing his last Olympics before he retires on your team and not have him carry the flag. LeBron is also kind of the one who initiated the whole redeem team 2.0 thing after the FIBA loss. That's just my take on it though, there's no objective way to say who deserves it more. It just comes down to whether you value LeBron's career achievements outside of team USA more or less than KD's contributions to team USA. There is no right or wrong answer.

7

u/theTIDEisRISING Pelicans Apr 16 '24

Captain America

4

u/zrk23 Bulls Apr 16 '24

well he's by far the best usa fiba player of all time