-
Brian Windhorst, ESPN Senior Writer
Kawhi Leonard will not be playing for the United States at the upcoming Paris Olympics, with the team substituting Boston Celtics guard Derrick White for the Los Angeles Clippers forward.
In a statement released Wednesday, the United States Basketball Association suggested Leonard’s decision was influenced by Clippers and U.S. team officials who toured training camp in Las Vegas over the past three days.
This would have been Leonard’s first Olympic appearance after missing 12 of the Clippers’ final 14 games last season because of inflammation in his right knee.
Clippers coach Ty Lue is on the U.S. team’s coaching staff, and representatives from the team, including Clippers president Lawrence Frank, attended practices at UNLV this week.
“Kawhi has been building up his game for the Olympics in recent weeks, training hard in Las Vegas and feeling ready to compete,” USA Basketball Association said in a statement. “However, he respects the determination by USA Basketball Association and the Clippers that it is in his best interest to spend the remainder of the summer preparing for next season rather than competing in the Olympic Games in Paris.”
White recently signed a four-year contract extension worth $126 million and played for the United States in the 2019 World Cup. He averaged 15.2 points and 5.2 assists per game for the NBA champion Boston Celtics last season.
“Following a championship season in Boston, we are pleased to announce that Derrick will be competing in his first Olympic Games,” USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill said. “We look forward to him joining the team in the coming days as we continue our preparations for Paris.”
“I want to thank Kawhi for his commitment to the U.S. Men’s National Team. While he has earned the opportunity to represent the United States, the US Basketball Association and Clippers executives felt it was important to allow Kawhi to be prepared for the NBA season.”
Leonard said he had been rehabbing his knee for the past two months and wasn’t sure if he would be able to play until two weeks ago when he was feeling better.
“I took my time and I was able to recover over the last two weeks,” Leonard said Sunday. “So now I’m here and I’m having a good time.”
Leonard said Tuesday that his knee is “neutral” even though he’s scheduled to play in the U.S. national team’s first exhibition game against Canada on Wednesday night.
White will not be with the team Wednesday night but is scheduled to join up with the U.S. team this weekend in Abu Dhabi, the first stop of a two-way international tour with more games and training before arriving in France for the Olympics.
NBA teams don’t have the power to block players under contract from playing for their national teams, but it usually ends up being a mutual decision. Canadian national team general manager Rowan Barrett said two weeks ago that the Golden State Warriors would not allow forward Andrew Wiggins to play in the Olympics, but the team said it was a mutual decision.
The U.S. team is also dealing with an injury to forward Kevin Durant, who missed contact training with a calf strain and will not play in Wednesday night’s game.
Leonard, who is in the process of signing a three-year, $150 million contract with the Clippers, has missed the past two playoff games due to a right knee injury. The two-time NBA champion and six-time All-NBA selection has missed 256 regular season games over the past seven years, including the entire 2021-22 season due to a knee injury. He played 68 games with the Clippers last season, his most since appearing in 74 games with San Antonio in the 2016-17 season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
