The newest two additions to the USA Basketball Men’s National Team left many scratching their heads, including Atlanta Hawks superstar, Trae Young.
About a week ago, Keldon Johnson and JaVale McGee were selected to be members of the US Team traveling to compete in Tokyo. They replaced Bradley Beal (protocols) and Kevin Love (injury).
After the news broke, Trae showed his displeasure with the decision by Tweeting the popular Isiah Thomas meme from ‘The Last Dance’, and the Detroit Pistons legend took notice:
https://twitter.com/IsiahThomas/status/1415809982797393923
Young has expressed his desire to represent this country since as early as February of last year when he was upset about not being named to the 44-man preliminary roster. However, he did end up being added to that list of finalists along with 14 other players in March, before the 12-man roster was picked.
Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young really wants to represent the USA
Interestingly enough, it is also worth noting that Lloyd Pierce, who was fired by the Hawks mid-season, is an assistant coach for Team USA. He had this to say to Sarah Spencer, an AJC reporter, back in February when asked about Trae being left off of the initial finalist roster:
"You have to understand when it’s your time, when it's your opportunity."
— Sarah K. Spencer (@sarah_k_spence) February 10, 2020
I asked Hawks coach (and Team USA assistant coach) Lloyd Pierce if it was hard to see Trae Young not named a finalist for the roster: pic.twitter.com/nEkiSbvGQq
There is probably no need to panic. Greg Popovich’s B-Team roster – let us be honest, we do not send all of our best players anymore, for a variety of reasons – has had their fair share of struggles.
Team USA dropped back-to-back exhibition games against Nigeria and Australia. These games were in Las Vegas, so maybe the losses can be blamed on one too many long nights at the Caesar’s Palace and not so much on lack of preparation. All jokes aside, losing the first two games as a team was a bad look for the US.
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Regardless, the team could definitely benefit from Trae Young’s spectacular game and playmaking ability on the offensive end. Even though the squad did not necessarily need anyone else in the backcourt, it would have been nice to see Trae repping the red, white, and blue this summer.
I understand that there is experience and camaraderie that is required to bear the honor of representing the United States of America on the basketball court every four (or in this case, five) years on an international stage. Although, in all honesty, with no disrespect, there are countless players better, and even more deserving, than Keldon Johnson and JaVale McGee.
It is just unfortunate that Trae Young is not on the roster, in part because these days it seems rare to have someone publicly yearn to play basketball in the Olympics as badly as he has. Clearly, Trae has a major basketball jones going on right now, fueled by exiting the playoffs earlier than he would have liked.
Regardless, the USA Men’s Basketball Team will still probably win the gold medal, and Trae Young will surely make the team for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. The opening ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games will air live on Friday, July 23, 2021, on NBC at 6:55 AM ET, and it will re-air at 7:30 PM ET.
The USA Basketball Men’s National Team plays their first game on Sunday the 25th against France at 8:00 AM ET.