Kobe Bryant is making waves today because he said publicly that college basketball “really isn’t teaching players anything.” Well, that’s news to me!
And Kobe Bryant should know because he……oh, wait he didn’t play any college hoops. The second trending story pertaining to Kobe Bryant today is the release of his ESPN the Magazine music issue pictorial with Nicki Minaj.
However, I’m here to give you a Kobe Bryant story that’s much important, at least from a NBA basketball standpoint, than both of those stories combined. It’s a valuable but under the radar Kobe Bryant story.
USA Basketball announced today the full list of 28 players that have been selected for the 2014-2016 USA Men’s National Team pool, from which the 2014 USA World Championship Team and, if the U.S. qualifies, the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team will be selected. The Coaching staff was selected as well. (read that here)
Duke Blue Devils leader Mike Krzyzewski will once again lead Team USA. Coach K. was on conference call today with the media and he said 11 out of the 12 veterans from London 2012 will be back. Kobe Bryant is the one who isn’t returning.
“I saw Kobe last night and he said ‘I’ll be there, but you probably won’t want me to play,’ I said ‘I’d always want you to play you, but I understand,” Krzyzewski said about Kobe Bryant not moving forward with Team USA basketball.
Dwyane Wade, Lebron James and Chris Paul will not be participating in the preliminary events before the Olympics, but will return to compete in 2016 in Rio.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar in media studies, he’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)