Cavs Love joining U.S. Olympic basketball team

Cavs Love joining U.S. Olympic basketball team

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Cleveland Cavs star Kevin Love will join the U.S. Olympic basketball team in Tokyo.

Love, along with Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton have committed to join the team, a person with knowledge of the decisions told the Associated Press. Cavs GM Koby Altman confirmed Love’s participation in a news conference with reporters Tuesday evening.

It would be the first Olympics for Holiday and Middleton, and the second for Love — who was on the U.S. team that won gold at the 2012 London Games.

Love played just 25 games after fighting injuries during the 2020-21 season. 

Holiday was part of the select team that helped the 2012 team prepare for the Olympics, and has been part of other USA Basketball experiences along the way — but never anything as significant as the chance to play in Tokyo.

Middleton was part of the most recent U.S. men’s senior national team, playing for coach Gregg Popovich — who’ll also lead the Olympic team — at the 2019 Basketball World Cup in China, where the Americans were a disappointing seventh.

The additions of Middleton, Holiday and Love put the Americans relatively close to having a full roster for the Tokyo Games. Others who have committed so far: Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, Golden State’s Draymond Green, Washington’s Bradley Beal, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Phoenix’s Devin Booker and Portland’s Damian Lillard.

Brooklyn’s James Harden also intends to play and has made that commitment to USA Basketball, though there is concern over whether his hamstring injury — which sidelined and slowed him at times during the Nets’ postseason run — will actually allow him to be part of the team.

The Americans start training camp in Las Vegas on July 6.

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