Jim Boeheim has a guarantee regarding Kevin Durant and Team USA.
“With a healthy KD, we will not lose,” the former Syracuse coach and USA basketball assistant told NJ Advance Media by text, echoing a comment he made to Bill Raftery of Fox Sports.
Durant practiced with the Team USA on Friday. It was his 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.
“I’ve seen progress every day,” Durant told reporters last week. “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 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.