USA Basketball opens 2012 quest
There's a strong likelihood that some attendees of next month's USA Basketball minicamp in Las Vegas will ultimately gain a spot on the 2012 Olympic team.
Jerry Colangelo, the chairman of USA Basketball, isn't sure of the number, but he said he thinks the talent pool in Las Vegas from July 22 to 25 will yield some players who will make the roster for London.
"This group represents our next wave of Olympians," Colangelo said Wednesday. "There's going to be some turnover from the last group, and there will be a good opportunity for some of these players to be with us in 2010 (at the FIBA World Championships) and 2012."
Heading the list of 25 invitees at Valley High School for the minicamp is Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, the 2009 NBA Rookie of the Year, along with Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant, Portland center Greg Oden and Minnesota forward Kevin Love.
Memphis guard O.J. Mayo, Los Angeles Lakers forward Trevor Ariza, New York forward David Lee, Utah forward Paul Millsap, Philadelphia guard Andre Iguodala and New Jersey guard Devin Harris also will attend. And Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin, expected to be selected No. 1 in today's NBA Draft, is scheduled to participate.
Toronto Raptors coach Jay Triano will run the minicamp, and Colangelo said the goal is to maintain the system put in place by Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who led Team USA to the gold medal at last summer's Olympics in Beijing.
"We put in a lot of effort to come up with a workable system, and Jay has been with us the last two years so he knows the routine," Colangelo said. "It's all part of a pipeline we've established to get the results all of us want.
"Some of the players we're bringing in have been with us before as part of our Select team. For others, this will be their first experience with the national team, so I expect it to be very competitive."
Practice sessions are closed to the public. The team will play a Blue-White intrasquad game, billed the USA Basketball Showcase, at 8 p.m. July 25 at the Thomas & Mack Center. Tickets, priced from $10 to $75, will go on sale at 10 a.m. today at the Thomas & Mack box office and through unlvtickets.com.
Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913.
