Kevin Durant will miss Team USA’s training because of a minor ailment. His illness is not significant, and coach Steve Kerr and his staff will exercise caution with the veteran forward.
Kevin Durant will miss the start of Team USA’s camp in preparation for the Olympics later this month, according to coach Steve Kerr.
Durant missed the first two days of camp due to a calf issue. Kerr stated that Durant suffered the injury in the days leading up to camp and that it is not considered significant, but the team is adopting “an abundance of caution” by keeping him out.
Durant is considered on a daily basis. It is unclear when he will be cleared to play or whether he is in Kerr’s plans for the Americans’ first preseason game of the pre-Olympic season against Canada on Wednesday. The United States had five exhibition games before heading to Paris and beginning Olympic action against Serbia on July 28.
“He’s frustrated,” Durant’s fellow USA Basketball and Phoenix Suns colleague Devin Booker stated. “He can’t be out there with us.”
“I think he tweaked it a few days before he got here,” Mr. Kerr added. “It isn’t bad. He assures me that it isn’t bad. We’re simply going to be cautious and smart, take it day by day, and move from there.”
He is the second forward who has been unable to fully participate in the US camp, which began its second day of on-court workouts Sunday. Boston forward Jayson Tatum was excused from the first two days of camp workouts for personal reasons and is expected to play with his US teammates for the first time on Monday.
Durant might become the first four-time gold champion in men’s Olympic basketball history this summer, having already helped the Americans win trophies in London in 2012, Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and the rescheduled Tokyo Games three summers ago. He has 435 points in Olympic competition, 99 more than fellow three-time gold winner Carmelo Anthony, the highest in US men’s history.