United States men’s national basketball team had to make two replacements

Fortunately, the United States men’s national basketball team has found two replacements for the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics that finds the USA opening on July 25th against France.

One day after Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal had withdrawn because he was in health and safety protocol, veteran National Basketball Association forward-center Kevin Love has announced he will not compete because he has yet to recover fully from a right calf injury.

So no Beal, no Love, who just happens to be the nephew of Mike Love, the long-time lead singer of the legendary Beach Boys.Plus, NBA forward Jerami Grant is also in health and safety protocol and won’t join the team until camp is up, so hopefully he’ll be ready to take flight Monday.

The rest of the team is still in tact, except that guards Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday of the Milwaukee Bucks, and guard Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns will not join up until the NBA final is over, and right now it’s 2-2 in the best-of-seven series, with game 5 tonight at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix.

The US has won 18 straight Olympic golds on the court, and that includes the last six it has accomplished in the pro era that brought in NBA players when the Olympics were catching up to its collegiate rosters.

Right now, the Americans are without half the players they will take to Tokyo, but Popovich said he excepts all but Middleton, Holiday and Booker at the airport Monday. Plus, the replacements, NBA center JaVale McGee and NBA guard Keldon Johnson, have informed the head coach that they will be at the airport Monday.

McGee played last season for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets. Anthony played under Popovich at San Antonio. Both were members of the select team of young players training against the Americans. McGee has won three NBA championships but has no Olympic experience. Johnson has been involved in the national team program since 2009.

Now the USA has got to play better. It has played a trio of exhibition games and lost the first two to Nigeria and Australia, then bounced back to win handily over Argentina. Then, because of pandemic issues, the Saturday contest versus Australia was cancelled because of health and safety concerns, but hopefully, the Americans still have a Sunday final exhibition game against Spain.

Most of the USA players contacted had only positive news.

Said NBA guard Zach LaVine: “I think we’re the best basketball team in the world. We’re able to compete and do things under certain circumstances, and we’ve got to go out here and get the job done regardless. So I don’t think anybody’s going to feel bad for us or take it easy. It’s just what it is and we’ve got to get the job done.”

Portland Trailblazer shooting guard Damian Lillard also had things to say.

“I think,” he said, “coming into something like this, you know that things could come up, especially coming out of the pandemic and the possibility of guys maybe testing positive.”

Popovich didn’t miss a beat although he wasn’t happy with the two defeats.

“Injuries happen,” he said, “people have a change of heart. You just come into it expecting that.

“But I believe our primary focus was to come here and come together as a team, get our bodies moving around, get in shape to be able to go compete on the level that we want to compete on, and I think we are moving in that direction as a group. We fell good about where we are.”

McGee and Johnson were members of a select team of young players training with the US team and had appeared in two of the exhibition games.

Love would have been trying for a second Olympic gold medal, having played for the USA in London in 2012. He was also on the team that won gold two years earlier in the world championships. That experience helped him get selected for this roster despite a difficult NBA campaign.

He missed 46 games because of the calf injury and averaged only 12.2 points in 25 contests. He played in all three of the exhibition games and scored but one point.

So if Love isn’t playing up to par, Beal will be missed. He is one of the flashiest top scorers in the NBA. He handles the ball well, can score from inside and outside, plays stout defense, and is now just disappointed to miss the Olympics.