Russell Westbrook pulls out of 2016 Olympics
Don’t expect to see Russell Westbrook on the 2016 Olympics USA basketball team.
Later this summer, the 2016 Olympics will be underway in Rio, featuring some of the world’s best athletes competing in a variety of sports.
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A sport that the USA has dominated in is basketball. This is due to all the top American players from the NBA usually participating on the team. Top stars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade have played on Team USA before.
However, for the 2016 team, it seems they will have one less star, as Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook will not be part of the team. He decided to remove his name from consideration on Friday night. This is according to Royce Young of ESPN.
Russell Westbrook is pulling out of consideration for the 2016 Olympics.
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) June 10, 2016
Here is the official statement on Westbrook not being part of the team.
Russell Westbrook won't be competing in the Olympics: pic.twitter.com/Ve33hdNfLr
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) June 10, 2016
Being part of Team USA means having a shortened offseason, so that could be part of Westbrook’s reasoning. Players look for downtime following the NBA season, so he could want to take the next few months off before coming back fresh for the 2016-17 year. The Thunder are also coming off a Western Conference Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors, so that could be a factor too.
Team USA will probably be fine given the wealth of talent they’ll have on the roster. They will be one of the favorites to win the gold medal once the Olympics get underway.
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