On July 11, Beijing time, the United States men's basketball team officially announced that Leonard would withdraw from the Olympic men's basketball team, and Celtics player Derrick White took his place. Subsequently, a number of media reported on the matter, and more insider information was exposed. White will not play in today's warm-up game against Canada and is expected to join the team in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Jaylen Brown, another Celtics star, has been updating social media continuously, and is suspected of being dissatisfied with not being selected for the national team.
"Over the past few weeks, Leonard has been preparing for the Olympics and has had some strong training in Las Vegas," the United States men's national basketball team wrote in a statement. He felt like he was ready to compete. However, it is in his best interest to respect the decision of Team United States and the Clippers to spend the rest of the offseason preparing for the upcoming new season rather than competing in the Paris Olympics. Then the United States men's basketball team posted a poster of Derrick White and officially welcomed him to the team.
White just signed a four-year, $126 million contract with the Celtics. He represented United States at the 2019 World Cup. Last season, he played for the Celtics, averaging 15.2 points and 5.2 assists per game, and was an important piece of the puzzle for the Green Army to win the championship. White will not play in the warm-up game against Canada, but is expected to join the United States men's basketball team in Abu Dhabi this weekend, from where he will begin his Olympic preparations.
"I'm thrilled to announce that Derrick (White) will be competing in his first Olympics after the Celtics won the title," said Grant Hill, general manager of United States Basketball, "and we look forward to his arrival in the coming days as we continue to prepare for the Paris Olympics." I want to thank Kawhi [Leonard] for his commitment to the United States men's national team. He won the opportunity to play for Team United States, but the leadership of the United States basketball team and the Clippers saw it important to get Kawey ready for the NBA season. ”
Interestingly, just after the United States men's basketball team decided to replace White for Leonard, another star of the Green Army, Jaylen Brown, updated social media, first posting three puzzled expressions, and then Aite brand, writing: "This is what we are doing? The latter paragraph has now been deleted.
After the screenshot of the American media, he wrote: "Jaylen Brown didn't look very happy that he was not selected for the Olympic men's basketball team. Many fans lamented that Brown could not be happy just after winning the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP, but being excluded from the national team.
Los Angeles Times reporter Brad Turner reported that a source revealed that recently United States men's basketball general manager Grant Hill, United States men's basketball coach Kerr and Clippers president Frank were all concerned about his knee injury after watching Xiaoka's training with the Clippers. In addition, Cole had already hinted at his worries about Xiaoka in an earlier interview. He said at the time that Jr.Ka's performance in United States training was "up and down."
'He was very active early on the first day and then he wasn't that good, which makes perfect sense because he's just coming back from injury,' Kerr said at the time, "and the tricky part here is that you have an accelerated preparation schedule. So, that's what we have to be sure, and he has to help us determine. With this accelerated timeline, will he be at his best when the Olympics start in a few weeks' time? Now it seems that the answer they came to is no.
Leonard had said before retiring from the national team that he had been rehabilitating his knee for the past two months and was not sure if he would be able to play until the injury improved two weeks ago. He also said he planned to play in the warm-up against Canada, but that things quickly changed.
Leonard is about to start a three-year, $150 million contract with the Clippers, but he has missed the playoffs for the past two years due to a right knee injury. He has missed 256 regular-season games due to injury over the past seven years, including all games in the 2021-22 season. He played in 68 games for the Clippers last season, his most since 2016-17.
NBA teams don't have the ability to stop a signed player from playing for the national team, so withdrawing from the national team is usually a mutual decision. Canada general manager Rowan Barrett said two weeks ago that the Warriors would not let forward Wiggins play in the Olympics, but the Warriors said it was a mutual decision. Celebrity A. Smith once said: "If I were Ballmer, I wouldn't let Leonard into the United States men's basketball team." A few hours later, Leonard actually quit the United States men's basketball team.
The United States are also facing injury issues with forward Kevin Durant, who is unable to participate in confrontation training with a calf strain, and will not play in the warm-up game against Canada today, and he may miss more warm-up games.