USA Basketball picks 41 NBA players as candidates for the Paris Olympics roster

There are few surprises in USA Basketball’s men’s player pool for the Paris Olympics that was announced Tuesday, with most of the big names like LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant on the list.

The surprise may have been who was missing.

Draymond Green, who helped the U.S. win gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and then another title at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics in 2021, was not among the 41 names released by USA Basketball as candidates for the team that will compete in Paris this summer in search of a fifth consecutive gold medal.

The naming of the pool is the first official phase in the process of assembling a 12-player Olympic roster that will be coached by Golden State's Steve Kerr and assisted by Miami's Erik Spoelstra, the Los Angeles Clippers' Tyronn Lue and Gonzaga's Mark Few. Team selection will be finalized this spring, with many of those decisions likely hinging upon player health and how deep their respective teams go in the NBA playoffs.