One of the mainstays from the gold medal winning Team USA men’s basketball team in London four years ago (and also from the Redeem Team in Beijing) will not help Team USA defend it in Rio this summer. Clippers guard Chris Paul has withdrawn his name from consideration for the team and has probably played his last game for Team USA in any competition after a decade of involvement with the program.
“I feel my body telling me that I could use the time,” he told Lee Jenkins of SI. Without Blake Griffin for a large chunk of this season, Paul has been borne the weight of the Clippers season on his shoulders, not to mention his advancing age. He told SI that he can’t recall a summer in which he either wasn’t injured, recovering from injury, or playing for Team USA since being drafted from Wake Forest in 2005.
He is also the patriarch of a burgeoning family, and would like to spend more time with his kids.
“Just a few days ago, Little Chris asked me, ‘Daddy, will you play in the Olympics again?’” Paul said. “Part of me wanted to say yes, because he’s never been part of it. But I told him, ‘I want to spend more time with you.’”
While Paul was one of the premier point guards of his generation, USA basketball has plenty of talent to draw on for the Games this summer including John Wall, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, and that Steph Curry fellow.
When Paul spoke with Lee Jenkins, he was heading to the Staples Center to prepare for the Clippers’ game on Monday night against the Boston Celtics (a 114-90 victory for Los Angeles), and he had some parting words about playing for his country.
“Tonight, we’ll play the Celtics, and the fans in Boston will cheer hard against us,” Paul said. “The fans in L.A. will cheer hard against them. The thing I’ll always remember about Team USA is that everyone cheers for you.”
