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Vince Carter has taken a stab at the reason why so many NBA stars have dropped out of consideration for Team USA's quest for the gold at the upcoming FIBA 2019 World Cup. The longtime veteran and gold-medal-winner with USA Basketball in the 2000 Sydney Olympics noted players are more aware of the toll it takes on their bodies, instead using the offseason to fully nurse injuries or keep themselves in shape ahead of another grueling 82-game season.
“I think it’s preference,” said Vince Carter in a conference call, according to Business World. “You have to kind of look at the background of the player as far as injuries. Some of these guys feel like they’ve played a lot of games in a lot of months, have been dedicated to playing the game, and they don’t really get the same amount of time off as some of the guys who maybe didn’t play deep into the playoffs or are not getting that call to play on an Olympic team of some sort…”
Carter then noted that the reaction would be different if it was an Olympic year, like 2020 will be, which would give players more incentive to participate.
“Now, it’s an honor to play, and I think sometimes they’re worried about when the actual Olympics comes around instead of the qualifying. A lot of these guys are just trying to stay injury-free or are just fatigued in general… I recall back in my time playing in the Olympics, the gold medal game, our training camp had already started. Obviously, they’ve adjusted that. But a lot of these guys are now playing so many games in the NBA season, playing all the preseason, playing all of the regular season and of course some like the Steph Curry of the Warriors are playing into the Finals or even playing in the Conference Finals. That’s a lot of basketball that these guys are playing. To ask them to do that, it’s a tough decision, I’m sure, because of the loyalty to your team. You have a job to do as the star player to make sure they’re ready to go at the beginning of the year.”
Sadly enough the World Cup simply does not carry as much weight to Americans as it does to the rest of the world. Not many countries are able to swoop in for the gold at a moment's notice and pick when they'd like to walk away with it, an arrogant, yet quite unfortunate reason why a lot of stars have passed up this chance to compete at the highest international level.
