Jrue Holiday might have been the second most important player in Team USA’s run to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. He was third in scoring at 11.8 points a game (behind Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum), led the team in assists a game (3.8), was third in rebounds a game (4.8) and played critical point-of-attack defense for the team.
Which is why Steve Kerr and staff wanted him back in red, white and blue for the Paris Olympics this summer, and he has agreed to join the team, The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Joe Varden report.
USA Basketball has been pursuing Holiday for much of the NBA season, and it’s believed Holiday has delivered his commitment to USAB officials in recent weeks, sources said.
A few hours later, news was added that another gold medalist from Tokyo, Devin Booker, has been invited and plans to play in Pairs.
A number of the league’s top players have expressed interest in playing for Team USA in Paris. Both LeBron James and Kevin Durant affirmed their interest during All-Star weekend. Joel Embiid, Stephen Curry, Tatum and others also have expressed interest in playing in Paris for Team USA. The report says Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton — who stood out for Team USA at the World Cup — are under strong consideration, as are big men Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis (AD also said during All-Star weekend he wanted to play in Paris).
All of this is undoubtedly tentative. Holiday is part of the Celtics’ starting five that expects to be playing in June, which means a very short turnaround into USA Basketball and the Olympics — that’s what Holiday did in 2021, going straight from winning the NBA Finals with the Bucks to catch up with Team USA on its pre-Olympics tour (along with Khris Middleton and Devin Booker). Does he want to do that again? There is the obvious health question. Finally, Holiday has a $37.4 million player option for next season he is widely expected to opt out of in search of a longer deal, and while that is probably wrapped up with Boston in early July, if it is not it could impact his thinking and the risks he is willing to take.
Health will certainly play into the decision by the other players as well.
The USA will head to Paris as the betting favorite to win gold but Serbia (potentially with Nikola Jokic), Canada, Germany and France will ensure there is no easy path to the top of the medal stand.
