Will Steph Curry, Draymond Green play in Olympics? LeBron James is reportedly recruiting them
Curry, who will be 36 next summer, has never before played in the Olympics
Steph Curry is a nine-time NBA All-Star who has won four NBA championships, two NBA MVP awards, and one NBA Finals MVP, but he is still missing a significant piece of hardware: an Olympic gold medal.
Curry will try to change that if LeBron James gets his wish when he joins James on Team USA for the Olympic Games in Paris next summer.
According to The Athletic, James has begun recruiting some of the NBA’s biggest stars to join him for what could be a farewell tour for a few veterans like Curry.
In addition to Curry, James is said to be courting Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, and Jayson Tatum. According to The Athletic, Devin Booker, Damian Lillard, De’Aaron Fox, and Kyrie Irving are also interested in playing.
The star-studded push for the Paris Olympics comes just a day after the United States failed to medal at the FIBA World Cup with a roster full of NBA players but lacking A-list superstars, as has become the norm for tournaments other than the Olympics. Team USA lost to Germany in the semifinals on Friday, then to Canada in the third-place game on Sunday.
Curry has never competed in the Olympics before. He has appeared in six of the last nine NBA Finals, which usually conclude just before the start of Olympic training camps in the summer. He withdrew from consideration for Team USA ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, which he had hoped to make his Olympic debut in, in order to recover from injuries sustained during a grueling NBA season without Klay Thompson.
Green was a member of the United States’ gold-medal winning team in Tokyo, as well as the gold-medal winning team in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The Paris Games will take place on July 26, 2024. Before the game, Team USA is expected to have a full training camp and an international preseason tour. If the Warriors make another deep playoff run next year, Curry, who will be 36, may not have much time to rest.
But the stakes will be different next summer. Not only could it be the last chance for James, 39, and Durant, 35, to win another gold medal, but it’s also a chance for Curry to work with Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who took over as Team USA head coach from Gregg Popovich after his group won gold in Tokyo.
Curry was asked in an ESPN interview two months ago if he’d consider playing for Kerr in Paris.
“That’s the one piece of my resume that coach always likes to joke about that I don’t have,” Curry said. “So he’s already looking for me for next summer… I have no idea what the weather will be like next summer. It’s obviously a plus that Coach Kerr is leading the charge. I’d gladly play for him any day of the week, so we’ll see how things go in the summer of ’24.”
The United States has won four gold medals in a row at the Olympics.