It started with a botched jump ball and ended with the USA Men’s National Team essentially getting chased off the court by a rush of fans that clearly wasn’t supposed to get a free pass from Thomas & Mack Center security. In between at Thursday night’s USA Basketball Showcase, the players remaining from ...
This week, and only this week, a college coach other than UNLV’s Dave Rice will have free reign of the Mendenhall Center, UNLV’s two-and-a-half year old basketball training facility. Starting today ...
Anthony Davis approached the first defensive possession of his Team USA career like Happy Gilmore on the tee box. Davis, the No. 1 overall draft pick of the New Orleans Hornets, never did get a block in Team USA’s 113-59 victory against the Dominican Republic, but he did score nine points in the fourth quarter. And now he’s going to get several more chances at that first swat.
Russell Westbrook is one of the best basketball players in the world. That’s pretty clear to everybody these days. But in 2005, Westbrook came to Las Vegas in the summer before his senior year of high school with an entirely different goal. Playing at the adidas Super 64 AAU basketball tournament, he was just trying to be seen.
During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, James Harden was preparing for his sophomore year at Arizona State. A standout by Pac-10 standards if not quite a national star, Harden watched USA Basketball’s run to the gold medal without the ‘One day that will be me’ thoughts that most of the current Team USA members once had. Yet here he is. On Saturday, Harden officially became a member of Team USA when Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski made their announcements at Wynn Las Vegas.
The debate may be USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo’s favorite part. On Friday night in Las Vegas, after the first day of Team USA’s training camp at the Mendenhall Center, Colangelo planned to get together with his basketball inner circle to compare and contrast their six candidates for the final three spots on the Olympic roster. Injuries pushed the announcement back, but the official 12-man roster is finally coming out Saturday during a press conference at 5 p.m. at Wynn Las Vegas.
The U.S. men’s national team officially begins training camp for the 2012 London Olympics at noon Friday at the Mendenhall Center. It will train behind closed doors for six days and then play an exhibition game against the Dominican Republic on July 12 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Team USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo doesn’t put much stock into Dwyane Wade’s comments last month about how the professional basketball players on the Olympic team should better compensated.
If exhibition basketball is all about thrilling the crowd, then Derrick Rose deserves a gold medal for his performance Saturday night in Team USA’s Blue vs. White Showcase. Although Kevin Durant led the White team to a 114-96 victory against the Blue Squad with 28 points, it was Rose who garnered the most ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the 11,635 fans at the Thomas & Mack Center.
In recent years, many have referred to the NBA as a point guard-driven league. That’s evidenced nowhere better than this week’s Team USA training camp in Las Vegas.
As soon as the Cox Pavilion doors swung open for the media to watch the end of the USA Basketball National Team's scrimmage Thursday, all eyes were on Kevin Durant.
No, it's not the Olympics. Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski, however, is referencing history this week to make the 20 players attempting to make the cut for next month's FIBA World Championships in Turkey realize the significance of the situation.
When BYU guard Jimmer Fredette worked out for NBA team after NBA team in selling himself as a potential draft pick this summer, he constantly was left guessing. Rarely - if ever - did any of those doing the evaluating give him open critiques or pointers on what he needed to improve if he went back to school. Now, he'll learn firsthand this week what those within several NBA franchises wouldn't tell him.
Whatever aftershocks are created from NBA superstar LeBron James' nationally televised decision Thursday to jump ship and join the Miami Heat, a significant one will take place in Las Vegas in about two weeks. In preparation for the FIBA World Championships, Team USA will hold its summer training camp in Las Vegas from July 20-23, followed by the team's showcase exhibition contest at 7 p.m. July 24 at the Thomas and Mack Center.
