PARIS – Barring any last minute setbacks, Kevin Durant will make his 2024 debut with Team USA Sunday in game 1 of the Paris Olympics vs. Serbia on Sunday after missing the entire preseason with a calf strain, coach Steve Kerr said.
Durant, 35, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and Team USA’s all-time leading scorer, had passed every test prior to Saturday’s practice after suffering a strained left calf days before the Americans’ Olympic training camp began on July 6.
Durant, who is trying to become the only men’s basketball player to win four gold medals, was unable to do anything other than shoot on the side until the team arrived in London late last week. He ramped up his practices after the U.S. made it to France, with a team practice Wednesday in Lille and a scrimmage Thursday in a Parisian suburb.
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The Americans chose to keep Durant on the roster, which was finalized this week, rather than send him home like they did Kawhi Leonard (knee injury) because they felt he would be healthy enough to play – if not when the Olympics began, then certainly when the tournament advances to the knockout stages beginning Aug. 5.
Durant is the most prolific scorer in U.S. men’s history, with 640 points overall (Olympics and FIBA World Cup play), the most points scored in a single Olympics and in a single FIBA competition, the second-most points in a single Olympics, and the most points in a FIBA game. No player, man or woman, has averaged more points per game in the Olympics over their career than Durant’s 19.8 ppg, nor has any American averaged more in an Olympic tournament than Durant’s 20.2 ppg in the Tokyo Games.
Meanwhile, USA center Joel Embiid did not attend practice Saturday due to an illness, but he is also expected to play against Serbia.
This story will be updated
(Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
