The Los Angeles Clippers' Lamar Odom has informed USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo that he will be unavailable to play for the USA Basketball National Team this summer at the Olympics.
The players in Team USA's selection pool seem to be dropping like flies, as Odom is the third player this week announcing his withdrawal from the team.
"Lamar has told us that he is unable to play for the United States this summer. While it is unfortunate to have lost the players we have, Coach Krzyzewski and I remain extremely confident with the group of players we'll have at our training camp in Las Vegas. We believe that we will still have an outstanding collection of talent and that ultimately we will have another team that all Americans will be excited about and proud of," said Colangelo.
Odom's loss is tough to swallow because he and Kevin Love were the team's only two bigs with truly polished and versatile offensive skill-sets. Now Team USA is down to four big men, three of whom -- Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Tyson Chandler -- raise various question marks as to their offensive consistency.
The USA's 12-man roster will be announced on July 7 from the following list of 15 finalists: Carmelo Anthony; Kobe Bryant; Tyson Chandler; Anthony Davis; Kevin Durant; Rudy Gay; Eric Gordon; Blake Griffin; James Harden; Andre Iguodala; LeBron James; Kevin Love; Chris Paul; Russell Westbrook; and Deron Williams.
By Staff of The Daily Sports Herald and news services
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