June 10, 2019 – USA Basketball Chairman and National Team Managing Director Jerry Colangelo today announced that Hornets guard Kemba Walker will be among 20 players attending the Aug. 5-9 USA Basketball Men’s National Team training camp that will be used to select the 2019 USA World Cup Team. Kemba Walker’s only previous experience in international competition came during the 2008 FIBA Americas Championship when he won a silver medal with USA’s U18 team.
USA National Team members who are confirmed to participate in the 2019 Las Vegas training camp include: Harrison Barnes (Sacramento Kings); Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards); Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans); Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons); Eric Gordon (Houston Rockets); James Harden (Houston Rockets); Tobias Harris (Philadelphia 76ers); Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers); Kevin Love (Cleveland Cavaliers); Kyle Lowry (Toronto Raptors); CJ McCollum (Portland Trail Blazers); Khris Middleton (Milwaukee Bucks); Myles Turner (Indiana Pacers); and Kemba Walker (Charlotte Hornets).
Added to the 2019-20 USA National Team roster and participating in the August USA National Team training camp are: Kyle Kuzma (Los Angeles Lakers), Brook Lopez (Milwaukee Bucks), Paul Millsap (Denver Nuggets), Donovan Mitchell (Utah Jazz), Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics) and P.J. Tucker (Houston Rockets).
Eighteen of the 20 players boast of prior USA Basketball experience, and the group includes five players who are U.S. Olympic gold medalists and five players have won FIBA World Cup gold. Barnes (2016), Davis (2012), Harden (2012), Love (2012) and Lowry (2016) have each captured Olympic gold, while Davis, Drummond and Harden were part of the gold medalist 2014 USA World Cup Team and Gordon and Love were members of the gold medalist 2010 USA World Cup Team.
“We’re pleased with the players who will be attending the 2019 USA Basketball National Team Training Camp, and we feel we will be able to select a strong team for the 2019 FIBA World Cup,” said Colangelo. “The majority of these players possess prior USA Basketball experience, and we know all of them are committed to representing their country and doing so in the manner expected by USA Basketball.
“Like past national team training camps, this group too possesses outstanding individual talents, while also boasting of excellent versatility and athleticism. We’ve been watching a lot of players during the NBA season and the six players who we’ve added to the National Team roster we feel are deserving of being part of our national team program.”
The 2018-20 USA Basketball National Team coaching staff features USA and San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. Serving as USA assistant coaches are Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce and Villanova University head coach Jay Wright.
“I am excited about getting to training camp in August and working with all of the players that have been selected to attend the USA National Team training camp in Las Vegas,” said Popovich. “We’ve got an excellent cross-section of veteran USA Basketball and NBA players, as well as some exciting younger players who possess amazing versatility.
“I’m appreciative of commitment that our National Team players continue to make, and the eagerness of the new players to become involved. Selecting a 12-man team will be extremely difficult. But I look forward to working with all of the players, representing the United States and doing so in a manner that all Americans will hopefully rally behind.”
Since the formation of USA Basketball’s National Team program in 2006 by Colangelo, USA national teams have compiled a spectacular 88-1 overall record (FIBA competitions and exhibition games) and claimed top honors in six of seven FIBA or FIBA Americas competitions (through 2016 Olympics).
Following the Las Vegas camp, which concludes with a USA Blue versus USA White exhibition game on Aug. 9 at the T-Mobile Arena, the selected team finalists will take a short break and will reassemble in Los Angeles and train Aug. 13-15, then play an exhibition contest versus Spain at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Aug. 16. The official, 12-member roster for the 2019 USA Basketball Men’s World Cup Team will be announced on Aug. 17.
The American squad will continue its World Cup preparations Aug. 19-24 in Melbourne, Australia, and play a pair of exhibition games versus Australia on Aug. 22 and Aug. 24 at Marvel Stadium. The USA will complete its pre-World Cup tour Aug. 25-28 in Sydney, Australia. Slated to conduct training Aug. 25, 27 and 28, the U.S. will close out its exhibition tour on Aug. 26 facing Canada at Qudos Bank Arena.
2019 FIBA World Cup
The 32-team 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup competition will be held Aug. 31-Sept. 15 in China. Eight cities will host World Cup games – Beijing, Foshan, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Nanjing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The United States, two-time defending World Cup champion and FIBA’s No. 1 world ranked team, was drawn into Group E and will play its first-round games in Shanghai. Also drawn into Group E were Czech Republic, Japan and Turkey. The USA will play Czech Republic on Sept. 1, Turkey on Sept. 3 and Japan on Sept. 5.
Following competition of the round-robin first round games, the top two finishing teams from each group will qualify for the second round, while the bottom two teams from each group will play the classification round for places 17-32. Second round games are scheduled to be held Sept. 6-9 and the results of the three games from the first round carry over to the second-round standings.
The second round will feature four groups – Group I will consist of A1, A2, B1 and B2; Group J will feature C1, C2, D1 and D2; Group K will consist of E1, E2, F1 and F2; and Group L will include G1, G2, H1 and H2. Second round play will be held in Foshan, Nanjing, Shenzhen and Wuhan.
The top two finishing teams from each second-round group will qualify for the quarterfinals, and the bottom two teams from each second-round group are eliminated and ranked in places 9-16 according to the Official Basketball Rules. The quarterfinals action will be held in Dongguan and Shanghai on Sept. 10-11.
Semifinals and the gold and bronze medal game are slated to be held in Beijing on Sept. 13 and Sept. 15, respectively.
The USA men have participated in 17 FIBA World Cups and have collected 12 medals – five gold medals (1954, 1986, 1994, 2010 and 2014), three silver medals (1950, 1959 and 1982) and four bronze medals (1974, 1990, 1998 and 2006). USA Men’s World Cup teams own an overall record of 123-27.
Results from the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 will qualify seven nations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The top two finishing teams in the World Cup from the Americas and Europe zones will earn qualifying places in the 2020 Olympics, as will the top finisher from Africa, Asia and Oceania. Additionally, Olympic host Japan automatically qualified, and the final four nations will qualify through four FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments that will be held in 2020 in advance of the Olympics.
