USA Basketball reduces Men's Team roster to 16, John Wall cut

USA Basketball National Team Managing Director Jerry Colangelo announced that 16 players have been selected as finalists for the 2014 USA Basketball Men's World Cup Team roster following the team's recent training camp in Las Vegas. That camp ended on a down note when forward Paul George suffered a severe leg injury that will sideline him for potentially 18 months.

"The ending to our Las Vegas training camp with the injury to Paul George was very emotional for everyone involved in USA Basketball," said Colangelo. "I very much appreciate the outpouring of support Paul and USA Basketball has received the past couple of days from the basketball world. Past Olympic coaches and some of our past Olympic and World Championship players have reached out offering their continued support and that's very important. Paul's injury was an extremely unfortunate occurrence; it was truly a freak accident. We're all very pleased that his recovery is going well."

The finalists include three Olympic gold medalists from 2012 - Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans), Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) and James Harden (Houston Rockets); three 2010 World Championship gold medalists - Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors); Durant and Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls); and the addition of Mason Plumlee (Brooklyn Nets) to the 2014-16 USA National Team roster and to the list of finalists participating in Chicago.

Plumlee began the Las Vegas training camp as a member of the 2014 USA Select Team.

Selected USA World Cup Team finalists were DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings); Curry; Davis; DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors); Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons); Durant; Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets); Harden; Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz); Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers); Kyle Korver (Atlanta Hawks); Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers); Chandler Parsons (Dallas Mavericks); Plumlee; Rose; and Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors).

Notably absent was Wizards point guard John Wall, who played poorly in the team's intra-squad game.

Considering the severity of George's injury, the players all deserve credit for sticking it out and keeping their commitment to the team.

"Their willingness to represent the United States says a lot about our players' patriotism and their willingness to sacrifice their time to this commitment," said Colangelo.  "Not every American has the opportunity to represent their country and our players have embraced each opportunity to do it. They have worn the USA jersey with respect and honor, and by their commitment they have made all Americans extremely proud."

The USA National Team is scheduled to resume its 2014 preparations for the FIBA Basketball World Cup on August 14 in Chicago.

"We had an excellent training camp in Las Vegas and each player gave a great effort and deserves recognition and thanks for his commitment and hard work. We've said all along that we would be proud to have any of the players who were in Las Vegas represent USA Basketball and the United States. This phase of the selection process was extremely difficult and very thorough, and it's worth again mentioning that we are looking to select the best team, which are not necessarily the best players. We're pleased with where we are at this point of our training and we're looking forward to getting back on the court and continuing our preparations to represent the United States at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup," said Colangelo.

The 2014-16 USA Basketball National Team coaching staff features USA head coach and Duke University's Naismith Hall of Fame mentor Mike Krzyzewski. Serving as assistant coaches are USA Basketball and Syracuse University and Naismith Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau and New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams.

"We're excited about where the team is headed," said Krzyzewski.  "Really all 16 guys have a chance to make to the team, which usually does not happen in a training camp, and it shows that all of the guys thus far have done an excellent job. Then it's just a matter of finding what chemistry that we can develop with the entire group and I don't think we'll know that until we play some exhibition games. The 16 guys give us a chance to look at a way of playing in a number of different ways and we just have to figure out what those ways are and then the 12 who will fit best."

By Staff of TheDailySportsHerald.com and news services