Three Oklahoma City Thunder players in Las Vegas for Olympic camp - Examiner.com

Amidst the contract extension for head coach Scott Brooks and the questions coming up in the free agency period, three Oklahoma City Thunder players began their quest to bring a Gold Medal to the United States in the 2012 Olympic Games. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden showed up in Las Vegas on July 6 to start training for the Olympics.

“It’s an opportunity to play with a group of guys on the team and an opportunity to represent our country. It should be fun,” Westbrook said. “It’s crazy because you never really know how they are as people when you see them on the court. You don’t talk to them as much, so to get to hang with them outside of it is kind of cool.”

View slideshow: Oklahoma City Thunder

This is Durant and Westbrook’s second appearance as members of Team U.S.A., winning Gold Medals in 2010 as well. Harden is making his first appearance, chosen by USA Basketball Managing Director Jerry Colangelo.

Advertisement

“I’m just going to embrace that and really have fun and enjoy it,” Harden said. “I’ll be with Kevin and Russell, so that will help.”

Team U.S.A. is coached by Duke legend Mike Krzyzewski and also includes LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler, Rudy Gay, Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Love, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and 2012 NBA Draft first round draft pick Anthony Davis.

LaMarcus Aldridge, Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh all pulled out of the Games, nursing various injuries. Lamar Odom also withdrew this week and both Griffin and Davis are questionable. It is now too late to add anyone to the team with the Olympics only three weeks away. This makes setting the final roster a difficult decision for Krzyzewski.

"We would have already made the decision if it wasn't for the injuries and the length of the NBA season," Krzyzewski said. "We have a pretty good idea of who will be on the team, but the last one or two spots, you're not sure of, so you want to see the guys physically and talk to them.”

"While it is unfortunate to have lost the players we have, Coach Krzyzewski and I remain extremely confident with the group of players we'll have at our training camp in Las Vegas,” Colangelo added.

For e-mail updates whenever a new article is posted, please subscribe at the top of the page and follow me on Twitter @starvingdogs, on GooglePlus, or join my group on Facebook.