LAS VEGAS — Team USA star forward Kawhi Leonard, who has been battling chronic knee pain and inflammation for months, will not play for the United States at the Paris Olympics and will be replaced, USA Basketball announced Wednesday.
Boston Celtics forward Derrick White is considered a strong replacement candidate, team sources said.
White, 30, a 6-foot-4 guard who can defend against taller players, is coming off an NBA championship with the Celtics and was part of the U.S. team at the 2019 World Cup.
An update on Kawhi Leonard of the United States men’s national basketball team. pic.twitter.com/84TjYpc90i
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 10, 2024
Leonard, 33, has been participating in Team USA’s training camp and has been on the field for every practice and game. He insisted his ailing left knee is getting better and coaches said he is doing well while “ramping up” to full speed for the Olympics.
But Leonard and Team USA decided that his knee, which caused him to miss the final eight games of the regular season and most of the LA Clippers’ first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks, would not allow him to play at the speed needed in what is expected to be a highly contested Olympic tournament.
In 2021, Kevin Love came to training camp as a member of Team USA, but withdrew due to a lingering injury that prevented him from reaching acceptable levels of conditioning and performance.
The Clippers and the NBA also worry that Leonard could further injure his knee this summer and jeopardize his status for the start of the regular season, when the Clippers open their $2 billion Intuit Dome Arena, the sources said. But teams are not allowed to prevent players from competing for their countries in the Olympics, so it’s ultimately a decision between Leonard and Team USA.
Leonard has chronic inflammation from multiple surgeries. He played in just two playoff games in 2023 due to a torn meniscus and missed the entire 2021-22 season after tearing his ACL during the 2021 playoffs.
White, meanwhile, is the only player on Team USA who has never been an All-Star. He averaged a career-best 15.2 points and shot nearly 40 percent from three-point range for the Celtics, and was named a second-team All-Defense player.
Team USA is also without star forward Kevin Durant due to a calf injury, but Durant could return to the court in Abu Dhabi next week.
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(Photo: Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)
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