According to various reports on Monday, NBA superstars LeBron James and Stephen Curry are among several elite players interested in competing for the United States at next year’s Paris Olympics.
According to The Athletic, two-time Olympic champion and four-time NBA winner LeBron James has been recruiting fellow NBA stars for a US team that will compete for a fifth gold medal in a row next year in France.
Curry, the Golden State Warriors’ four-time NBA champion guard, has indicated a desire to play on the Olympic team led by Warriors coach Steve Kerr, according to ESPN.
The announcement comes a day after a US team of 20-something NBA stars were eliminated from the Basketball World Cup after losses to Canada in the bronze-medal game and eventual champion Germany in a semi-final.
James, a 38-year-old forward, led the United States to Olympic gold medals in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, but has not played since.
He knows the agony of defeat on the international stage, having been a reserve on the US squad that finished third in Athens in 2004 and third in the Basketball World Cup in 2006.
James has not only expressed interest in competing for Olympic gold in Paris, but has also contacted previous NBA MVPs Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant in an attempt to encourage them to compete in 2024.
Durant, a Phoenix Suns forward who turns 35 later this month, helped the United States win Olympic gold medals in London, Rio in 2016, and Tokyo in 2021.
Curry has never played for the US Olympic team, but he has helped American teams win the World Cup in 2010 and 2014, their only titles since 1994.
Others According to The Athletic, James has recruited Los Angeles Lakers colleague Anthony Davis, Golden State’s Draymond Green, and Boston’s Jayson Tatum for the 2024 US Olympic team.
ESPN reports that Phoenix’s Devin Booker, a three-time NBA All-Star, and Golden State’s 38-year-old Chris Paul, a gold medalist in 2008 and 2012, are also interested in competing in the Olympics in Paris.
