Kevin Durant, who missed all five of the USA’s warm-up games with a calf strain, practised on Wednesday upon the team’s arrival in France ahead of the defence of their Olympic basketball title.
The Phoenix Suns star, a former NBA MVP and three-time Olympic gold medallist, suffered the injury in June, but coach Steve Kerr has said there was no thought of replacing Durant on the roster.
“The plan is for him to get in the scrimmage and see how he handles that,” Kerr told reporters in Lille after the team held an hour-long practice session. “He looked good today and he did everything, he got a lot of shots up and told me he’s feeling pretty good.”
Durant, 35, missed the win over Canada earlier this month as well as the two exhibition games in Abu Dhabi. He was deemed not quite ready to return for the two most recent games in London either.
“It starts with the scrimmage tomorrow and we’ll see what the training staff says after that,” Kerr said of the plan for easing Durant back into action.
The Suns and Durant’s representatives will also be involved in any decision-making, Kerr insisted.
“This is not going to be like us going out and saying, ‘Hey, let’s just throw him out there.’” Whether or not Durant will feature in Team USA’s tournament opener against Serbia remains unclear, but Kerr can call upon LeBron James who is back at the Olympics for the first time since 2012.
James is set for his fourth Games appearance in Paris, where will he serve as the United States flagbearer alongside tennis star Coco Gauff in tomorrow’s opening ceremony on the Seine.
“I just like coaching him rather than coaching against him, he’s incredible and it’s so fun to see him up close and get to know him a little bit and watch him with his teammates,” said Kerr.
“I mean there’s a reason he’s LeBron James.
“To see him at 39 doing everything he’s doing, dominating games, leading practices, setting an example for everybody, he’s incredible.”
