OLYMPICS
USA Basketball now has a full 12-man roster for the Tokyo Games, after Chicago’s Zach LaVine and Detroit’s Jerami Grant accepted invitations Wednesday to join the team that will try to win the program’s fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
LaVine’s decision was confirmed by his agent, Nima Namakian. Grant’s decision was confirmed by a person familiar with the situation, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because USA Basketball has yet to formally reveal the full roster.
The challenge for the Americans will be keeping the group together. There has already been one change; Brooklyn’s James Harden, who had briefly committed, has since told the national team that a hamstring injury that affected him during the NBA playoffs would not allow him to participate, the person familiar with the roster decisions told AP.
So, for now, the Olympic team that will be coached by Gregg Popovich in Tokyo: Washington’s Bradley Beal, Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Milwaukee teammates Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Cleveland’s Kevin Love, Phoenix’s Devin Booker, Golden State’s Draymond Green, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, LaVine and Grant.
The team has a combined 37 All-Star selections, led by Durant’s 11. The team will not be officially complete until USA Basketball sends its roster to FIBA, something that won’t happen until next month.
Durant is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, after being part of the 2012 and 2016 teams. Green also helped the U.S. win gold in 2016, Love in 2012.
Holiday, Middleton and Booker are still in the NBA playoffs. Game 7 of the NBA finals may happen as late as July 22 – just three days before the Americans open Olympic play in Tokyo against fellow medal favorite France, the nation that knocked the U.S. out of medal contention at the Basketball World Cup in China two years ago.
USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo has said that contingencies are being made in case any players miss camp and have to arrive in Tokyo after the rest of the Olympic team because of their NBA playoff schedules.
The Americans are also in the process of putting together a select team that will practice against the Olympic team during training camp in Las Vegas, which opens July 6. It is possible that, if necessary, players may be promoted from the select team to the Olympic team; such scenarios happened with the World Cup team in 2019 because of injuries and other roster openings.
LaVine’s decision gives the American roster six of the top 10 NBA scorers from the U.S. this season. Lavine averaged 27.4 points for Chicago, making the All-Star team for the first time.
Stephen Curry, who led the NBA in scoring, is not planning to play for the U.S. this summer. But six of the next nine U.S. names on this year’s scoring list – Beal, Lillard, Durant, Tatum, Booker and now LaVine – are among those who have told USA Basketball that they’re in for Tokyo.
This would be the first Olympics for LaVine. He has some past USA Basketball experience, after being part of the select team that trained with and against the 2016 U.S. Olympic team during practices in Las Vegas as they prepared for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
Grant – who averaged 22.3 points for Detroit this season – was also part of that select team in Las Vegas five summers ago before the Olympics. He played for 2012 U.S. team that went 5-0 on its way to the gold medal at the FIBA Americas U-18 Championship in Brazil.
WATER POLO: Stephania Haralabidis, 26, is among five newcomers on the U.S. squad heading to the Tokyo Games this summer. The 13-player roster was announced in Los Angeles.
Captain Maggie Steffens and defender Melissa Seidemann are going for their third consecutive gold medal. Alys Williams is heading to the Olympics for the first time, becoming the first woman to make the American team after she was cut when the roster was finalized for the previous games.
The addition of Haralabidis gives the already powerful U.S. a rare commodity on the international water polo scene: a left-hander. Because her strong side with the ball is different, she creates time for her teammates.
SWIMMING: Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri has contracted mononucleosis, raising questions over whether he’ll be able to defend his gold medal in the 1,500-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics.
Besides the 1,500, Paltrinieri was also planning to enter the 800 free and 10-kilometer marathon races. Paltrinieri won three golds and two silvers when he competed in both the pool and open water at the European Championships in Budapest in May. He’s also a three-time world champion.
3×3 BASKETBALL: Kelsey Plum, Stefanie Dolson, Allisha Gray and Katie Lou Samuelson grew up wanting to play basketball in the Olympics.
They didn’t know it would be as part of the inaugural 3×3 competition at the Tokyo Games.
The four WNBA players, who were all part of the five-on-five national team pool, were chosen to represent the United States at the Olympics next month.
There will be seven teams joining the U.S. in Tokyo – China, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, France, Japan and Italy.
The 3×3 game is played on a half court with a 12-second shot clock and the winner is the first team to score 21 points or to be leading at the end of a 10-minute period. Baskets inside the arc are worth one point and shots outside it are worth two.
COLLEGES
BASEBALL: Spencer Jones scored on Brendan Beck’s wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to keep Vanderbilt alive in the College World Series with a 6-5 victory over Stanford.
SOCCER
EURO 2020: Leon Goretzka scored late to keep Germany in the European Championship with a 2-2 draw against Hungary on Wednesday in Munich.
Jamal Musiala made an immediate impact after coming on in the 82nd minute, eluding three defenders to give Timo Werner room to shoot. Werner was blocked, but the rebound fell for Goretzka, who shot past goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi in the 84th.
Before that, it had looked like Ádám Szalai was going to drag Hungary into the round of 16. The captain scored one goal early against the run of play and set up András Schäfer to make it 2-1, right after Kai Havertz had equalized for Germany.
Instead, Germany got the draw it needed to finish second in the group, while Hungary finished last.
• Cristiano Ronaldo scored two penalties to tie the overall men’s scoring record with 109 goals and Portugal advanced to the Round of 16 after a 2-2 draw with France at Budapest, Hungary.
Ronaldo’s tournament-leading fourth and fifth goals moved him level with former Iran striker Ali Daei at 109, while also extending his overall tournament record to 14.
• Two goals from Robert Lewandowski couldn’t stop Poland from exiting the tuournament. Viktor Claesson scored in stoppage time to give Sweden a 3-2 victory over Poland in St. Petersburg, Russia, and first place in Group E.
Lewandowski scored in the 61st and 84th minute. Emil Forsberg scored twice for Sweden before that.
• A bizarre own-goal by the goalkeeper sent Spain on its way to a 5-0 victory over Slovakia in Seville, Spain.
Martin Dúbravka saved an early penalty kick from Álvaro Morata but then clumsily knocked the ball into his own net a few minutes later after it ricocheted high into the air off a shot by Pablo Sarabia. Dúbravka struggled to get into position as the ball started to come down. He jumped to swat the ball away, but it instead rolled off his hand and into the net.
Aymeric Laporte added to Spain’s lead before halftime and Sarabia, Ferran Torres and another own-goal in the second half made it five.
MLS: Tajon Buchanan and DeJuan Jones scored six minutes apart in the first half, Carles Gil had three assists and the New England Revolution held off the New York Red Bulls 3-2 at Foxborough, Massachusetts.
New England (7-1-2) won its fifth consecutive match. New York (4-5-0) had its two-game winning streak snapped.
FOOTBALL
NFL: NFL players must decide by July 2 if they plan to opt out of playing this season due to COVID-19 concerns, though voluntary opt-outs will not be paid any stipend this year.
In a memo sent to clubs and obtained by The Associated Press, the league and the NFL Players Association agreed that only high-risk players will receive a stipend of $350,000.
Voluntary opt-outs got a $150,000 stipend in 2020.
To qualify as a high-risk, a player must have opted out last season and have an effective contract executed before Oct. 1, 2020, or have been newly diagnosed with a CDC-defined higher-risk condition. Rookies wouldn’t be eligible unless they were diagnosed with a high-risk condition after signing a contract.
A total of 67 players opted out last year before vaccines were available.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Sylvia Fowles had 26 points, 19 rebounds and five blocks, Damiris Dantas added 23 points and the visiting Minnesota Lynx overcame an 18-point first-half deficit to beat the Atlanta Dream 87-85.
TENNIS
WIMBLEDON: Defending champion Novak Djokovic was named as the top seed as he seeks a 20th Grand Slam title, while Roger Federer and Serena Williams will begin the grass-court tournament next week seeded seventh.
Top-ranked Ashleigh Barty is seeded first on the women’s side. The Australian hasn’t played since retiring from her second-round match at the French Open due to the flareup of an upper-leg injury. The draw is Friday and the tournament begins Monday.
Eighth-ranked Federer has the seventh seed because third-ranked Rafael Nadal is sitting out Wimbledon to rest and recover after his loss to Djokovic in the French Open semifinal. Daniil Medvedev is the second seed, followed by Stefanos Tsitsipas and Dominic Thiem, although the Austrian retired from a match in Mallorca on Tuesday because of wrist pain.
Defending women’s champion Simona Halep is seeded second, ahead of Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina. Second-ranked Naomi Osaka is not playing.
VIKING INTERNATIONAL: Lucky loser Max Purcell’s unlikely run continued when he reached the quarterfinals by defeating top-seeded Gael Monfils at the grass-court event in Eastbourne, England.
The 283rd-ranked Australian won 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 after trailing 3-0 in the deciding set to secure the biggest win of his career. It’s the first time the Purcell has made the quarterfinals at a tour-level event.
There were surprises on the women’s side, as well. Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan reached the quarterfinals by beating second-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, 6-4, 7-6 (3), and Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit eliminated third-seeded Bianca Andreescu of Canada, 6-3, 6-3.
Fourth-seeded Iga Swiatek lost to Daria Kasatkina after winning the first set.
AUTO RACING
JEFF GORDON will leave the Fox Sports booth to take a daily role at Hendrick Motorsports as vice chairman and the second-ranking team official to majority owner Rick Hendrick. The announcement positions the four-time champion and Hall of Famer to one day succeed the 71-year-old Hendrick at the top of NASCAR’s winningest organization.
Gordon will formally begin the executive management role at the start of 2022.
Gordon joined Hendrick Motorsports for the final Cup race of the 1992 season and launched one of the greatest careers in NASCAR history. He won 93 races – third on the all-time list – and four Cup titles before retiring in 2015. He joined the Fox Sports booth the next year but maintained an active role with the team as Hendrick’s only partner in the 13-time championship organization. Gordon became an equity owner at Hendrick in 1999 and was listed as co-owner of the No. 48 car when it was created in 2001 for seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.
GOLF
RYDER CUP: Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell, players who have holed decisive putts for Europe at Ryder Cups, were appointed as vice captains for the team for the 2021 edition at Whistling Straits in September. They joined Luke Donald and Robert Karlsson as assistants to captain Padraig Harrington as Europe looks to retain the biggest prize in team golf.
Kaymer, who secured the point which completed the comeback now often referred to as the “Miracle at Medinah” in 2012, will take on the role for the first time after four appearances as a player.
McDowell, who claimed the winning point at Celtic Manor in 2010, was also a vice captain under Thomas Bjorn for Europe’s victory at Le Golf National outside Paris in 2018.
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