LAS VEGAS — Twelve years ago, U.S. Team head coach Steve Kerr was a TNT announcer two seasons into his first coaching career.
Twelve years ago, Stephen Curry was completing his third NBA season and one year away from his breakout, Kawhi Leonard had just finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and Anthony Davis had just been selected first overall in the NBA Draft.
Twelve years ago, Tyrese Haliburton was 12 years old, Anthony Edwards was in fourth grade and Joel Embiid had moved to the United States just two years earlier and immediately committed to the University of Kansas.
And 12 years ago, Kevin Durant and LeBron James were teammates for the first time in London, teaming up as arguably the two best players in the world. They had just completed the first of three NBA Finals, marking the true beginning of the league's best on-court rivalry since Bird and Magic.
Twelve years later, Durant and James will be teammates again, perhaps for the final time, on the 2024 U.S. national team as a way to celebrate their contributions to the game of basketball.
“It's awesome,” James said Saturday. “The fact that 12 years later I'm still at this stage in my career and able to play at a high level and represent the U.S. National Team is a tribute to our dedication to our craft and staying relatively healthy. … Our game remains the same from 12 years ago to now, and it's always great to team up with Kevin Durant, one of the greatest players in the history of the game. I'm looking forward to it and it's going to be another fun ride.”
Will this ride be my last? It's only day one of training camp, but there's still a chance it will be my last.
Durant acknowledged he knew this might be one of his last experiences with James not just as teammates but on a basketball court, and he took a few seconds to gather his thoughts.
“He's been a big part of the basketball world, especially in my career, ever since I was in high school,” Durant said. “He's almost 40 years old and he's still playing at the highest level and he's an inspiration to me. Anytime you get the chance to be around Bron, even just having a meal or just hanging out for a few minutes, his energy is contagious. So, to actually spend some time with him, because he's been through so much in this league, I know the conversations we're all going to have are going to be great and I'm looking forward to it.”
After missing the past two Olympics, James' return at a time when international basketball is stronger than it's ever been would be fitting if this is truly his final hurrah. If there are any figures from the past two decades who should represent basketball's final bosses at a premier international tournament at a time like this, it's Durant and James.
There's been a lot of discussion, and rightly so, about how the rest of the world has “caught up,” but that term is used too loosely and belittles the sheer force that is a fully functioning Team USA. This roster serves that purpose.
Add those two and Curry in and you've got enough players — seven of the eight MVPs from 2009-2016 — but the supporting cast is so damn impressive that calling them MVPs is absurd — Embiid just won the MVP himself last year — and you also have Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum, Davis and Leonard, all of whom are first-team All-NBA members from the past decade.
That still leaves two-thirds of the field covered, with Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Haliburton, July Holiday and Edwards, and one of those four will be the best player in that half of the field by a long shot.
James is arguably the best player in NBA history. Durant isn't far behind him on the all-time list and is for many the league's best scorer of all time. Durant won three games to win a gold medal, while James won a bronze medal in 2004, which led to the creation of the legendary Redeem Team, which went on to win two gold medals. Durant is already recognized as the best player in the history of the men's Team USA, but the upcoming Olympics should erase any doubt.
You can imagine what that's like for a young crew like Halliburton.
“It's pretty amazing, to be honest with you,” he said. “I watched them play in the Finals every year as a kid. … The more time you spend with them, the more you hear their stories and stuff. It's really cool because those are the same things I was thinking about when I was 15, 16 years old. Just being with those guys makes it a surreal experience. Walking away today and looking into the future and seeing Book, LeBron, Joel and Ant, it's like, wow.”
Having those two Olympic veterans on the team is a huge luxury for Kerr, who noted that while the first few days will be focused on rule changes and the like, James and Durant don't need that education.
“They can help because they've been there,” Carr said. “For a coach, nothing beats internal leadership. It makes your job a lot easier when you have players coaching other players. … The experience they have is crucial, because our challenge is, their “The matches are tough. We have to adapt to FIBA matches so we can't expect to play our game. It's not an easy challenge.”
Curry also cannot go unmentioned in this regard: He's 36 and his first Olympics would mark the final checkbox on his career goals, along with those of James and Durant.
There's been a lot of talk over the past year about how Curry, Durant and James have been the faces of the league for so long, but are now in the twilight years of their careers and times are changing.
Durant saw that for himself during practice on Saturday.
“I think the caliber of guys that have been in the league for 10-12 years and have the experience and the track record is unmatched, but when you look at the younger guys like Ant and JT, the guys that are growing in the league, you see them reach the top, they build their own mountain somewhere and they're sitting there by themselves,” Durant said.
In some ways, these Olympics will be a poetic expression of that transition. Durant and James are no longer contenders to be the man at the top. The discussion centers on international talents like Serbia's Nikola Jokic, Slovenia's Luka Doncic (who didn't qualify) and Greece's Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The landscape of the game is changing, but together, Durant and James will provide a final, humbling reminder of who once ran the game and just how tough it is to fill that role.
