Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal has withdrawn from USA Basketball training camp and the consequent FIBA World Cup due to the expected birth of his child in late August/early September, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Beal is now one of several stars who have pulled out of participating in this quickly approaching World Cup, which will only have its share of chemistry reverberations in the upcoming Olympic games in Tokyo.
Though the circumstances are surely understandable for Beal, he joins Anthony Davis, James Harden, CJ McCollum and Eric Gordon as players who have withdrawn.
The United States has a tough task ahead with no practice whatsoever since last year's brief two-week training camp in Las Vegas, as conflict with the NBA season forced USA Basketball to make use of Jeff Van Gundy to coach an ensemble of G League talent and overseas Americans to qualify for the World Cup.
Unlike prior iterations of Team USA, this year's team will have a very different look with no Kevin Durant, LeBron James or all-time USA leading scorer Carmelo Anthony.
This will also be the first time head coach Gregg Popovich is called into active duty after former coach Mike Krzyzewski finished an eight-year run at the helm of the team.
Popovich now has a tall task, playing with less talent than he had in mind due to the loss of Beal, a capable 20-point scorer with strong acumen from deep who is coming off his best season in the league.
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