Patrick Williams and Zach LaVine are hitting the Las Vegas Strip this summer.
Well, sort of.
On Thursday, USA Basketball announced the 17-man roster for its 2021 Men's Select Team, and Williams made the cut. LaVine, of course, will suit up for the National Team in this summer's Tokyo Olympics.
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Before the Games begin, the National Team will engage in a multi-week training camp in Las Vegas, which begins July 6 and features five exhibition games from July 10-18. The Select Team will train against the National Team during that camp, providing a unique experience for Williams to continue developing his game against some of the biggest stars in the NBA, alongside some of the brightest up-and-comers and under the tutelage of renowned coaching minds.
"This USA Select Team continues the legacy established by previous Select teams of helping prepare our USA National Team for the Tokyo Olympic Games,” Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball Men’s National Team managing director, said in a statement. “With all the uncertainty of how many of our Olympic Team members will be available for the USA training camp because of the overlap with the NBA Finals, we chose a USA Select Team consisting of many of the top young NBA players and four players who not only own international experience, but who played recently for USA Basketball in important national team qualifying competitions. If we need to add players to fill out our roster for any of our exhibition games, we feel this USA Select Team has an excellent variety of skilled players to choose from.”
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra will coach the Select Team, aided by longtime Gonzaga head coach Mark Few and Dallas Mavericks assistant Jamahl Mosley in assistant roles.
NBA
Joining Williams on the roster from the 2020 rookie class are fellow first-round picks Anthony Edwards, Saddiq Bey, Tyrese Haliburton, Immanuel Quickley, Isaiah Stewart and Obi Toppin.
Williams also has a trip to Las Vegas scheduled in August for Summer League, which will run from Aug. 8-17. It's clear he's backing up talk at his end-of-season presser of treating this offseason as a crucial one for both him and the Bulls.
"This offseason is going to be big for me personally now that I kind of know what to expect from the NBA," Williams said then. "This is my first season so everything was pretty much new. Now that I have the gist of what the NBA is about, to have that in my mind and that experience going into the summer, is going to be huge for me and for this team."