LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant headline U.S. Olympic basketball team roster

Gonzaga coach Mark Few relayed numerous stories to his players and staff from his experiences as an assistant coach with USA Basketball last summer at the FIBA World Cup.

Few should have a fresh batch of stories to tell next season’s Zags when he resumes his role with the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics this summer.

The U.S. team’s star-studded roster was officially announced Wednesday: LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and Kawhi Leonard.

The players account for nearly 200,000 career points, 84 All-Star selections and 10 Olympic gold medals. Ten were NBA All-Stars this season and seven ranked in the top 15 in scoring.

The roster is subject to change depending on players’ health and/or deep runs in the NBA playoffs, which begin Saturday.

The U.S. roster has two holdovers – Edwards and Haliburton – from the squad that lost to Germany in the World Cup semifinals and lost to former Zags standout Kelly Olynyk and Canada in the bronze medal game.

“Your hope is that they haven’t played together before, other than the 12 last All-Star games,” Olynyk told the Associated Press after hearing the U.S. roster.

Few, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Tyronn Lue return as assistants for Golden State’s Steve Kerr.

“(Took) all kinds of things,” Few said of his time with the U.S. squad last summer. “Could not have been a better group of people. It’s just so unbelievable, the type of people I’m so lucky and blessed to work with there.

“Just our meetings every night casually and when you’re with each other for 43 days and pretty much on your own with those guys, you really get to see a lot of stuff and learn a lot of stuff and experience a lot of stuff.”

Kerr (four), Spoelstra (two) and Lue (one) have combined for seven NBA titles as coaches. Gonzaga has qualified for the NCAA Tournament in all 25 of Few’s seasons and reached the championship game in 2017 and 2021.

The U.S. is the heavy favorite at -500 to win a fifth straight gold medal, but several countries are considered strong contenders . Serbia is second at +750, followed by Canada at +800, France at +900 and Germany at +1600.

The group stage begins July 27 and concludes Aug. 4. The knockout phase begins Aug. 6 with the men’s gold medal game set for Aug. 10.