In the wake of an injury crisis, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said Tuesday that he’s likely to add “one or two players” to the list of finalists for Team USA’s Olympic roster.
The U.S. announced 20 finalists in January, but has since lost five of those candidates. Starting center Dwight Howard recently had back surgery and point guard Derrick Rose tore a knee ligament Saturday.
The losses of Howard and Rose follows previous season-ending injuries suffered by Chauncey Billups (Achilles) and LaMarcus Aldridge (hip) and the exclusion of Lamar Odom from consideration after Odom was deactivated by the Dallas Mavericks before the playoffs began after a poor season.
Colangelo announced the intent to add a player or two to the preliminary roster at a news conference in Las Vegas with Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski in the midst of meetings with Krzyzewski’s staff about the roster and logistics for the summer.
Colangelo said Tuesday that the 12-man final roster won’t be selected “until the very last moment,” but the deadline still falls before the NBA playoffs will be over in late June. A final roster with up to six alternates is due June 18, although USA Basketball had been planning to make the selections by June 1 before the rash of injuries.
— Reported by Marc Stein of ESPN.com
