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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Durant returns to practice with US basketball team, one week before Paris Olympics

Durant returns to practice with US basketball team, one week before Paris Olympics

Published Jul 20, 2024 03:41 am

At A Glance

  • It was Durant's first time on the floor with the team this summer. He strained his calf a few days before the July 6 start of training camp in Las Vegas and missed the team's first three exhibition games.

UNITED STATES (AP) -- Kevin Durant practiced with the U.S. Olympic basketball team on Friday, July 19, a major step toward getting him back on track for the Paris Games that open next week.

It was Durant’s first time on the floor with the team this summer. He strained his calf a few days before the July 6 start of training camp in Las Vegas and missed the team’s first three exhibition games.

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Kevin Durant, in a file photo, poses with his gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP)

“I’ve seen progress every day,” Durant told reporters before practice in London, where the U.S. will play South Sudan on Saturday and Germany on Monday in its final two tune-ups before the Olympics. “It’s one of those things. Just got to monitor it every day. I’ll see how I feel after I do certain exercises. My thing is to keep running and see what happens.”

The U.S. is 3-0 in its pre-Olympic tune-ups, beating Canada in Las Vegas and then defeating Australia and Serbia at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates earlier this week before traveling to London.

And now the all-time leader in scoring for the U.S. men’s program at the Olympics — Durant has scored 435 points in Olympic play, 99 more than fellow three-time gold medalist Carmelo Anthony — seems on the brink of making an already-deep team even deeper.

“More firepower, more leadership, more experience in the FIBA game,” three-time Olympic medalist LeBron James said. “We welcome his return. We’re looking forward to him being back out there. … Anytime we can add a piece like that it’s great for our ballclub.”

Durant has a chance to become the first four-time men’s basketball gold medalist in Olympic history, after being part of U.S. teams that won gold at Tokyo three years ago, Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and London in 2012.

He said being back in London rekindled those early Olympic memories.

“Definitely, 2012 was a turning point in my career, just being around greats every single day and seeing how they operate, I just took a lot of that stuff with me,” Durant said.

The Paris Olympics open on July 26. The U.S. men play their first game of the tournament two days later against Serbia at Lille, France.

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