USA Basketball

Jeramie McPeek

USA Basketball today announced Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker is among 25 top young players chosen for the 2016 USA Men's Select Team that will train July 18-21 with the 2016 USA Basketball Men's National Team during its training camp in Las Vegas.

"I got the invite and it feels really good," said Booker. "I've never participated in anything with USA Basketball before and now I'm getting the chance while I'm in the NBA, competing against the Olympic Team. It's unbelievable, getting to represent USA and getting to wear those three letters across my chest. There's nothing like that. Obviously, this is my country, born and raised here and I know the history that goes behind it with the Dream Team, so I definitely feel honored and blessed to be a part of it."

Booker was named to the 2015-16 NBA All-Rookie First Team after he ranked fourth among rookies with a scoring average of 13.8 points in 76 games this past season, averaging 18.5 points over the season's final 44 games after permanently joining the starting lineup on Jan. 8. Booker led all rookies by shooting 84.0 percent from the free throw line and by recording six games with 30-plus points, the most by any NBA rookie since Blake Griffin in 2010-11. Only 19 years old, Booker totaled 1,048 points to become just the sixth teenager in NBA history to surpass 1,000 career points, joining LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard.

Since the development of the USA Basketball Men's National Team program in 2006, USA Basketball has previously selected and utilized five USA Select teams to help the USA National teams prepare for major international competitions. Booker is the third Suns player named to the USA Select Team since the first was fielded in 2007. Miles Plumlee was a member of the 2014 USA Select Team that trained against the National Team prior to the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain and Robin Lopez, after being selected by the Suns in the 2008 NBA Draft, was a member of the 2008 USA Select Team that trained against the National Team in the lead-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

“It’s unbelievable, getting to represent USA and getting to wear those three letters across my chest. There’s nothing like that.”

Before his senior season at the University of Wisconsin, current Suns forward Jon Leuer was a member of the 2010 USA Select Team that trained against the National Team in preparation for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

Members of the USA Select Team will train daily with the USA National Team from July 18-21 (12:00-2:00 p.m. PDT) at UNLV's Mendenhall Center. All practices are closed to the public.

"The 2016 USA Basketball Select Team continues to our tradition of featuring some of the game's brightest and most promising young players. Participation in this camp provides them with valuable experience at the USA Basketball National Team level, while helping prepare the 2016 USA National Team for its upcoming international competition. For many of the Select Team players this is a continuation of their USA Basketball experiences and for others it is an introduction into our pipeline," said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball National Team managing director.

"Being chosen for the Select Team is an honor and it is an important step in becoming involved in USA Basketball's National Team program in the future. Current national team players like Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, as well as many other outstanding players, got their USA National Team start through a Select Team.

"We're also very excited to get our future national team head coach Gregg Popovich involved this summer. Coach Popovich's coaching success speaks for itself and it will be great to have him be a part of this year's Las Vegas training camp."

Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs who on Oct. 23, 2015, was named head coach of the USA Basketball Men's National Team for the 2017-20 quadrennium, will oversee the Select Team and Spurs assistant coach Ime Udoka and Villanova University head coach Jay Wright will serve as assistant coaches. A complete list of the 2016 USA Basketball Select squad is included below.

The 2016 USA Basketball National Team coaching staff features USA head coach and Duke University's Naismith Hall of Fame mentor Mike Krzyzewski. Serving as assistant coaches are Syracuse University and Naismith Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau and Oklahoma City Thunder associate head coach Monty Williams.

The 31 finalists for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Team include: LaMarcus Aldridge; Carmelo Anthony; Harrison Barnes; Bradley Beal; Jimmy Butler; Mike Conley; DeMarcus Cousins; Stephen Curry; Anthony Davis; DeMar DeRozan; Andre Drummond; Kevin Durant; Kenneth Faried; Rudy Gay; Paul George; Draymond Green; Blake Griffin; James Harden; Gordon Hayward; Dwight Howard; Andre Iguodala; Kyrie Irving; LeBron James; DeAndre Jordan; Kawhi Leonard; Damian Lillard; Kevin Love; Chris Paul; Klay Thompson; John Wall; and Russell Westbrook.

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Booker Named to 2016 USA Men's Basketball Select Team

Matt Petersen

If you search the USA basketball archives, you’ll find there  as a Redeem Team before the self-named 2008 team or even the Dream Team of 1992.

Twenty years before the latter’s groundbreaking appearance in Barcelona, there was little basketball love for the Soviet Union after the controversial ending of the 1972 Olympic gold medal game, in which the Soviets were the beneficiaries of a wild ending that saw the gold medal snatched from the Americans’ already-celebrating hands. It marked the second time in a row the U.S. had been forced to accept silver (the 1970 World University Games was the other).

As fate would have it, however, the next stage of international basketball was Moscow, the capital of the USSR and home of Team USA’s all-too-recent heartbreak. The event: The World University Games.

Because NBA players were not permitted to play in international competition at the time, the pool of college talent from which the U.S. team drew was the same as it would be in an Olympic year. Twenty-six of the country’s elite prospects were invited to try out for the squad.

Among them: Oklahoma freshman and eventual Suns Ring of Honor member Alvan Adams.

“[I thought] this was going to be a tough team to make,” he remembered. “There’s 26 people and they’re only going to keep 13. If I make this team it will be an accomplishment.”

When the final roster was announced, Adams’ name was still there, as were those of high-flying guard David Thompson (North Carolina State), Marvin Barnes (Providence), Quinn Buckner (Indiana) and Maurice Lucas (Marquette) as well as other standouts.

This version of Team USA, however, wound up being especially young. Half of the 12-man roster was 19 years old or younger, including Adams

They were not too young to understand the opportunity at hand, however. Since the same non-NBA rules held for all countries – and because international NBA players were an absolute rarity at the time – Adams’ 1973 team would face a familiar USSR squad.

“I made that team that played the team that basically beat our Olympic team,” Adams said.

That matchup didn’t happen until, appropriately enough, the gold medal game. Team USA’s path to that point was marked with the craters of near-triple-digit victories. One three-game stretch saw them beat Sweden by 120-31, Portugal 140-34, and France 137-43.

As the medal rounds commenced, however, the more hoops-oriented nations began to surface. There were wonderings as to whether there might be politically oriented priorities in play for game officials.

“The writers wrote that it would be tough for the USA to win because of the referees,” Adams said. “It’d be very hard for us to beat Cuba and Russia because the referees aren’t going to [give them any calls].”

One specific instance involved Thompson, who Adams dubbed as the ’73 team’s “star.” The 6-5 guard was coming off a sophomore season in which he’d averaged 24.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per game while shooting 57 percent from the floor.

It was Thompson’s aereal attack, however, that gave the U.S.A. a near-unstoppable element on the court, one that Adams says added a revolutionary play to the game of basketball in general.

“The history of the alley-oop, the lob pass, started with North Carolina State and David Thompson,” Adams said. “He was on our team. His [college] coach was our [assistant] coach, Norm Sloan. Our plays were ‘set a back pick, get out of the way, throw it [in the air] to David.”

By the time the U.S. had logged multiple victories in exhibition play, however, their secret weapon had been exposed and  - by some within international power circles – deemed an unfair advantage.

“By the time we got to Bulgaria on our tune-up games before Russia, they changed the international rules,” Adams laughed. “'Number 42 can no longer take off in the lane. He must take off outside the lane to catch and dunk.' What kind of rule is that?”

Keep in mind that the international lane, at the time, was dissimilar in shape. Because of its trapezoidal shape (as opposed to the straighter key shape found on U.S. courts), the base of the lane was much wider than its American counterpart.

“’David, take off outside the lane,’” Adams recalls the coaches saying.

Despite such rule altering and playing on a rival’s soil, the U.S. continued to storm through the competition. Thompson scored 34 in a quarterfinal win over Cuba that featured a brawl near the end of the game. Brazil and its equally spotless 7-0 record were next in the seminfals, but Thompson (17 points) and Lucas (17 rebounds) helped Team USA advance wtiha  hard-fought 66-60 victory.

Nearly 15,000 Soviet fans were on hand for the highly anticipated gold medal game between the USA and USSR. Thompson again led the way, logging a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds as the U.S. recaptured the gold after consecutive international tournaments tainted with silver.

For the tournament, Adams ranked seventh on the team in scoring (6.9 ppg) as one of the key cogs off the bench. For him and his teammates, their gold medals from 1973 symbolized a much-needed comeback for USA Basketball.

“We thought of that,” Adams admits. “Just a year ago we had lost in Munich. It was great.”

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Alvan Adams, Team USA and Avenging the 1972 Olympics

It’s a ritual for every athlete that has ever donned a Team USA jersey.

How does it feel to represent your country?

Almost without exception, the answers are safely between the extremes of uncontrollable sobbing and sudden outbursts of “U-S-A!” chants. They say it’s an honor, that there’s no better team to play for, and other such selfless nods toward the red, white and blue.

Not that Miles Plumlee – a recent add to the USA Select Team and USA Basketball’s “pipeline” of talent – didn’t say that. He did.

But the Suns’ starting center also added some refreshing honesty to the experience, a reaction not far from ours if we were handed the same jersey worn by the best players on the planet.

“I won’t lie, it’s cool as hell ‘cause this is the USA team,” Plumlee admitted. “I dreamed about the NBA but I didn’t really think about this. I know this is a baby step [making the Select Team], but to be here wearing this uniform is really special.”

Once he processed the initial euphoria, however, Plumlee recognized the opportunity for what it was: recognition and opportunity.

His presence at Team USA’s training camp in Las Vegas capped off a meteoric rise from his rookie year in Indiana. One year ago, Plumlee had just completed a second Summer League stint and could only hope he would log more than the 55 total minutes he’d played in 2012-13.

A trade to Phoenix opened up a starter’s role in which he flourished as an elite rebounder and shot blocker. His brother Mason – who plays for Brooklyn and was also part of the Select Team – admitted one of the Nets’ main pre-game concerns last season was Miles’ per-minute production on the glass.

As much as he progressed, the USA experience has seemingly given him a first-hand look at newer, loftier goals. Much like LeBron James in 2008, Kevin Durant in 2010 and Anthony Davis in 2012, Plumlee appears inspired to raise his game significantly after spending time exclusively with the best of the NBA’s best.

“It’s a jump,” he admitted. “These guys are really good and their games are highly refined. They know exactly what they’re doing. They each have their roles and they do them at a really high level.”

Plumlee knows he’s not there yet, but his new status in USA Basketball doesn’t require him to be. The current Select Team consists of players with three years of experience or less. The Senior National Team will, on extremely rare occasions, pluck a player from its younger counterpart, but the main purpose is to identify up-and-coming talents and get them familiar with the program.

It doesn’t hurt that Plumlee has a head start with this particular team’s schemes. He played for USA Head Coach Mike Krsyckchie at Duke, where many of the same principles are executed.

“I do feel like I’m back at Duke, a little bit,” Plumlee said. “I’m running around a lot, setting a lot of screens. The defensive schemes are the same. I think that’s an advantage.”

He knows that past experience must be met with future progress. It’s not news that his competition for a roster spot consists of the best players in the world. It’s how they’re the best that has Plumlee mentally charting a course to join them.

“I think a lot of it is just finding your niche, knowing who you are as a player and taking it to the highest level,” he said.

Plumlee’s practice competition illustrates the point. Anthony Davis is one of the best shot-blockers and pick-and-roll big men. DeMarcus Cousins is an expert at using strength and speed to get wherever he wants to be on the floor. Andre Drummond has a relentless motor.

All of those players have added to those foundational skill sets. Plumlee looks forward to doing the same.

“There’s some things that [Mason and I] could do right now to help the team,” he said. “It’s just expanding your game, being able to do more things.”

If Team USA wins the FIBA World Cup in September, Plumlee will have two years before the next international competition to show how far he has come. He recognizes that time as important, especially with just one solid season of NBA play under his belt. Sustained excellene, he deems, was the key for the players heading to Spain next month.

“Going through the NBA, they gain trust in you,” Plumlee said. “Seeing you do stuff consistently for a year, they know you can do it. You can’t figure that out in just four days. All these guys on the court over there, they’ve proven themselves for years in the NBA.”

In Phoenix, he has the time and opportunity to do the same. Plumlee sees Channing Frye’s departure as further motivation to “expand my range” to at least 15 feet in order to keep defenses honest. That would be a bonus after opposing gameplans only had to account for his rolling attacks to the rim and/or offensive putbacks.

At Summer League, Plumlee also made a concerted effort to look for cutters while holding the ball in the low post. This quietly motivated the offense to keep moving. Teammates would see the big man looking over his shoulder, giving them the hope that if they stayed in motion and wound up open, they would get the ball.

Such improvements had their motivations before. Plumlee is one of the Suns’ many gym rats and likes to improve. He also gets a laundry list of drills and notes from the assistant coaches, most notably Mark West and Kenny Gattison.

Now, he has another reason to take another leap in his career, and it comes wrapped in red, white and blue.

“I want to make the real team someday,” Plumlee said.

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Plumlee Leaves USA Camp Inspired to Improve

Before Kevin Durant and the rest of Team USA set out to claim the 2014 FIBA World Cup in August, they'll be getting tested by fellow NBA players in practice and scrimmages

Miles Plumlee will be one of them after being named to the 2014 USA Men's Select Team, a squad put together in order to 1) provide quality training camp competition for the senior men's national team and 2) get players into what USA Basketball National Team managing director Jerry Colangelo calls the "pipeline" of national talent.

The Suns' big man's presence shouldn't come as a surprise. Team USA will need fresh reminders on how to attack rim protectors. Perennial contender Spain, for instance, boasts Pau and Marc Gasol as well as Serge Ibaka on its national team's frontline.

Plumlee, who led Phoenix in rebounds, blocks and field goal percentage, should provide solid preparation for Team USA's eventual path through the World Cup.

There's individual benefit here, as well. Plumlee's rise as a starting-quality center comes at a time when such big men are all too few in the NBA. Rim protection has become increasingly valued in basketball over the last few years, which makes fundamentally sound shot blockers/alterers like Plumlee a commodity in demand.

In the recent past, Team USA has made sure to have at least one pure (and mobile) rim protector on its roster. Tyson Chandler (2010, 2012) and Anthony Davis (2012) are the most recent examples.

Plumlee's age (25) and small amount of NBA mileage (two seasons) also describe the mold of player Colangelo has sought in his everflowing river of talent through the USA Basketball program.

“USA Basketball’s Select Teams are critical for getting some of the game’s brightest and most promising young players experience at the USA National Team level, and getting them into our pipeline," Colangelo said.

Plumlee will join Team USA for training camp in Las Vegas later this month. His Select Team teammates include his brother Mason (Brooklyn), Harrison Barnes (Golden State), Trey Burke (Utah, Jimmy Butler (Chicago), Draymond Green (Golden State), Tim Hardaway Jr. (New York), Tobias Harris (Orlando), Doug McDermott (Chicago), Victor Oladipo (Orlando), Marcus Smart (Boston), Dion Waiters (Cleveland) and Cody Zeller (Charlotte).

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Plumlee Among 13 Named to USA Select Team

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