PARIS – Joel Embiid recently suggested Team USA’s stars were old, and their advanced ages may cause outsiders to overrate their collective might.
Two of the players Embiid was talking about agree with him, to a point.
“Of course, we’re older and we all have mileage on our bodies,” said Kevin Durant, 35, who is Team USA’s all-time leading scorer but has yet to play this summer due to a calf injury. “We figure out ways to be effective, just as Jo has as he’s gone through injuries.”
Embiid, 30, has battled a host of injuries throughout his career, and chose playing for the U.S. over France — where he also gained citizenship — at the Olympics.
Durant acknowledged that he was aware of Embiid’s comments. Steph Curry, who sat next to Durant at an Olympic press conference in Paris on Thursday, suggested ignorance and asked for the context.
“What I’m saying is there’s too many podcasts out there,” said Curry, who is 36.
Embiid’s comments, told to New York Times Magazine in a 32-minute episode of “The Interview” before the start of Team USA’s training camp but published July 20, caused a stir outside of the American national team.
Team USA, winners of four consecutive golds and a prohibitive favorite for a fifth, is made up of 11 current NBA All-Stars who are considered future hall of famers. But Embiid’s point was that the team had been given too much credit before any games were played, and a reason why was that time had taken its toll on the elder stars.
“You look at the talent that the U.S. has, but there’s equal talent on other teams,” Embiid said. “And the talent that’s on the U.S. team, you also got to understand most of those guys are older. The LeBron now is not the LeBron that was a couple of years ago. So it’s a big difference. Everybody would also tell you, and you can see for yourself, the athletic LeBron, dominant that he was a couple of years ago, is not the same that he is now. I think people get fooled by the names on paper. But those names have been built throughout their career, and now they’re older. They’re not what they used to be.”
Embiid’s comments have caused a stir (Paul Harding/Getty Images)
Embiid used James, 39, as the example, but the American team has seven players who are 30 or older. Derrick White is 30, Anthony Davis is 31 and Jrue Holiday is 34. Kawhi Leonard, 33, was on the team originally but sent home by USA executives because it was deemed his chronic knee swelling would not allow him to play at a high enough level during the Olympics. He was replaced by White.
The irony of Embiid singling out James, and the timing of publication, is that James has been Team USA’s top player through the exhibition season. He is leading the team in scoring and assists, and twice rescued the Americans from late deficits with 25 points against South Sudan (on July 20, the date Embiid’s interview was published, and 11 of his 20 points late in the fourth quarter Monday against Germany.
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James averages 14.6 points and 3.8 assists for Team USA. Neither James nor Embiid have addressed the comments publicly and Durant said they were not a topic of conversation inside the team.
“The thing about greatness is that you adjust and continue to find ways to be effective,” Durant added Thursday when asked about James. “That’s what LeBron has done. He’s not running and jumping the same way he was when he was 25, 26 years old, but he’s still jumping pretty high and running pretty fast.”
Curry said the team still relies on their younger members too.
“It’s a five-man team (on the court at one time), so you’ve got to put it all together,” he said.
Currently, Devin Booker starts for the U.S. alongside James, Curry, Embiid and Holiday. Booker is 27 but is already an Olympic gold medalist. Holiday won gold with Booker at the Tokyo games. The team’s second-leading scorer, Anthony Edwards, is 22 and plays on the second unit with Davis, Bam Adebayo (27), Jayson Tatum (26), and White. Tatum and Adebayo also won gold in 2021.
“I don’t really don’t think it’s a big deal,” USA coach Steve Kerr said later on Thursday, when he was asked about Embiid’s comments. “I think it’s a fact that LeBron’s 39, Steph is 36. It doesn’t change the fact that LeBron’s still a hell of a player. He took over the last two games.
“We really like the balance on this team of age and experience, and none of that stuff matters other than coming together as a team and bringing the collective competitive force to a higher level,” Kerr continued. “And we’re definitely capable of doing that.”
Team USA’s first game at the Olympics is against Serbia at 5:15pm local (11.15am ET) on Sunday, in Lille, France. Friday is an off day for the American team as it prepares for the audacious Opening Ceremony in Paris, in which athletes are to float on barges down the River Seine.
James will become the first U.S. men’s player ever to serve as flag bearer.
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(Top photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)