LAS VEGAS — Team USA star Kawhi Leonard, who has been battling chronic knee pain and inflammation for months, will not play for the U.S. at the Paris Olympics and will be replaced, USA Basketball announced Wednesday.
Boston Celtics’ Derrick White is seen as a strong candidate for a replacement, according to team sources.
White, 30, a 6-foot-3 guard who can guard taller players, is coming off an NBA championship with the Celtics and was on the 2019 U.S. World Cup team.
An update on Kawhi Leonard of the US Men’s National Basketball Team. photo.twitter.com/84TjYpc90i
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 10, 2024
Leonard, 33, attended Team USA’s training camp and was on the field for every practice and exhibition game. He insisted his ailing left knee was feeling better and coaches said he was performing well as he was “running at full speed” for the Olympics.
But Leonard and the U.S. team decided that his knee, which caused him to miss the final eight games of the regular season and much of the LA Clippers’ first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks, would not allow him to play at the pace needed in what is expected to be a closely fought Olympic tournament.
In 2021, Kevin Love came to training camp as a member of Team USA, but withdrew due to a persistent injury that prevented him from reaching the desired fitness and performance level.
The Clippers and the NBA also were concerned that Leonard could further damage 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 country in the Olympics, so this was ultimately a decision between Leonard and Team USA.
Leonard has struggled with chronic inflammation from the many surgeries he has undergone. 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, would become the only player on Team USA never to be an All-Star. He averaged 15.2 points in his career and shot nearly 40 percent from 3 for the Celtics, and was named a second-team All-Defense player.
U.S. team forward Kevin Durant is also out with a calf injury, but Durant could return to the field next week in Abu Dhabi.
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(Photo: Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)