After Bradley Beal’s resignation, Team USA has had to replace Love with another player.
Team USA will need to replace another player in the men’s basketball team, after Kevin Love, five-time NBA All Star, withdrew on Friday. Multiple reports claim that Love was unhappy about his performance.
Jeff Schwartz, Love’s agent confirmed the news to ESPN Friday morning, after the Cleveland Cavaliers star forward spent days with the team in Las Vegas preparing for the season.
Love stated that he was deeply disappointed not to be going to Tokyo with Team USA. “But you have to be at absolute peak performance in order to compete at the Olympic level, and I’m just not there yet.”
According to The Athletic, Love was suffering from a nagging injury to his calf during the first preseason match of the 2020-2021 season. This caused him to miss several weeks.
Love is the second player to be replaced in less than a day after Bradley Beal, Washington Wizards’ assistant manager, was placed under health and safety protocols on Thursday.
Coach Gregg Popovich stated, “Bradley’s no doubt, he is a huge loss.” He was playing well, understood everything and was a good fit for the group. Bradley Beal is gone.
Love’s absence is sure to be noticed. He was awarded a gold medal by Team USA at the 2010 FIBA Championships as well as the 2012 London Games.
Jalen Rose, ESPN’s broadcaster, was a bit ambivalent about Love’s spot on the roster after he claimed that the 2016 NBA champion had been included only “because of tokenism.” Rose later apologized to the “game” but maintained his belief that Love shouldn’t have been on the team.
With their opening match against France scheduled for July 25, the Americans will be heading to Tokyo.
