The 2028 Summer Olympics are still two years away, but athletes are already confirming that they intend to compete when Los Angeles serves as host. Four-time Olympic gold medalist Kevin Durant is one of those athletes, as he told ESPN that he has every intention to compete at the 2028 Games.
“Hell yeah, I want to play,” Durant said. “I would love to, but I’ve got to stay on top of my game. I’m not expecting, I want to produce on the floor and make Grant [Hill] and whoever is making the decisions, want to put me on the team. I don’t want — not just for seniority. I want to still prove I can help the team win.”
Durant will be just two months shy of turning 40 when the 2028 Summer Olympics happen, but if he maintains the level of play that we’ve seen this season over the next two years, there would be no reason to not include him on the Olympic roster.
Health will certainly be a major factor in the matter, but Durant’s been durable in each of the last three seasons including the current one, and if that trend keeps, he should be a no-brainer to make the roster. The way Durant plays lends itself to aging well in the NBA, and we’ve seen that in the years since he tore his Achilles in 2019. He’s been an All-Star in six of the seven years since that injury cost him a full season in the NBA, and the outlier year was because he was limited to 39 games due to injury.
Durant earning a roster spot on Team USA isn’t the surprising part, it’s that he still wants to compete in the Olympics. There was an assumption that the 2024 Paris Games would be the final year he, LeBron James and Stephen Curry would all compete with Team USA. James has already said publicly that he doesn’t plan on suiting up for the 2028 Games. Curry hasn’t said if he’ll play, but he’ll also be 40 by then.
But Durant is letting us know that we were all wrong with that line of thinking.
“You guys, the media, have projected that,” Durant said. “That narrative, where did the last dance thing come from? I didn’t say I wasn’t playing. LeBron said he wasn’t. You didn’t hear that from me or Steph.”
For now we can pencil Durant’s name in for the 2028 Olympic roster, which will certainly see some turnover with all the aging stars likely not participating. Cade Cunningham stated his desire to play in the 2028 Olympics in a recent GQ profile, while making the bold statement that he thinks he’s the best American player. And will get some holdovers like Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton, as well as several of the younger players who are just starting out like Rookie of the Year frontrunners Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel.
Team USA certainly won’t be short on talent to pick from, but there’s already this narrative that other countries are starting to catch up with them. The men’s basketball team has won a gold medal in each of the last five Olympic Games, as they’ve been the far superior team in most cases in Olympic history. There’s only been three times the U.S. men’s basketball team hasn’t won gold since 1936, so it’s been an incredibly dominant run for them in the sport for a very long time.
However, at the 2024 Games, teams like Serbia and France did put up a good fight against Team USA, and Canada’s talent pool just continues to deepen with each passing year. The talent gap isn’t as wide as it once was, but Durant thinks it’s being overblown.
“I just don’t like the talk around the USA versus European style of how you approach the game,” Durant said. “All I hear is, ‘AAU is destroying the game; the Euros do it right while the Americans do it wrong.'”Â
Durant went on to talk about how he feels the conversation feels a bit racially charged in the way its discussed.
“It’s a lot of bullshit with that,” Durant said. “I can read between the lines on that. It’s a shot at Black Americans. We’re controlling the sport. They’re tired of us controlling the sport. ‘France is coming for you.’ Really? We smacked them boys.”
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