It’s kind of frustrating how the top US players in the league don’t seem interested at all in playing in the World Cup.
If we had Steph, KD, Dame, Tatum, Brown, AD, Lebron, Harden, Jimmy Butler, etc it would be so exciting to watch. Everyone would be talking about them all off-season. I mean we can barely even convince some dudes to play in the Olympics, I just don’t get it. The load management excuse is so lame.
In addition to load management (players and teams do have millions invested in their ability to play in the NBA season) there's also a new brand of image management culture that's come with social media. Players aren't willing to risk looking silly or bad - perhaps because they have millions invested in their personal brand. I don't think the players you mentioned would like getting ejected from an elimination game like Luka did, for example, and that's really not that bad. Established stars don't participate in the dunk contest during the NBA All-Star break, all-star game is boring af nowadays - it's all around
Team USA B, at least.
Yet...
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| Detroit Pistons |
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| Washington Wizards |
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| Denver Nuggets |
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| Oklahoma City Thunder |
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| Dallas Mavericks |
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