As rumored, Derrick White is replacing Kawhi Leonard on USA Basketball’s 2024 Men’s Olympic team.
The Celtics will now have three members from their roster on the team. It’ll be the third time in history that Team USA will feature three players from one NBA team.
USA Basketball had rostered three Celtics (Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart) during the 2019 FIBA World Cup. The 2019 squad also featured Kemba Walker, who was traded (sign-and-trade) to Boston earlier that summer, and White, who was on the Spurs then.
White and Tatum are set to join an exclusive list of players who have won an NBA championship and Olympic Gold Medal in the same season. Teammate Jrue Holiday, accomplished the feat in the Tokyo Olympics, coming off of his title run with the Milwaukee Bucks (which was the first Olympics that FortyEightMinutes gained credentials for).
Players Winning NBA Title, Olympic Gold in Same Year.
- Michael Jordan (1992)
- Scottie Pippen (1992, 1996)
- LeBron James (2012)
- Kyrie Irving (2016)
- Jrue Holiday (2021)
- Khris Middleton (2021)
1992: Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen led the Bulls to back-to-back titles in the NBA (the second of their first threepeat) and followed that up with a gold medal win in the Barcelona Summer Olympics as part of the vaunted dream team.
1996: Fun fact: Pippen and Jordan have the same amount of Olympic Gold Medals, though one of Jordan’s came while he was an amateur playing in the 1984 games (before NBA players were allowed to participate in the event). Jordan opted not to play in the 1996 games while Pippen would participate coming off a season where the Bulls won their fourth title in six seasons, helping Team USA win gold for the second-straight Olympics.
2000: The Lakers won the NBA title in 2000, though no player from the championship team participated in the Summer Olympics in Syndey, Australia for the Gold Medal-winning Team USA squad.
2004: The Pistons won the title in 2004 and no USA player from the team participated in the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece where Team USA, which was heavily favored, placed third.
2008: Boston won the 2008 NBA title, defeating Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, though the Redeem Team, which didn’t feature Bryant as a captain, didn’t roster any Celtics players.
2012: The Heat captured the 2012 NBA title, which was LeBron James‘ first of two titles in Miami. He followed that by helping Team USA to win a Gold Medal in the London Summer Olympics.
2016: Kyrie Irving was the lone Cavaliers from the 2016 NBA champions to participate in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil, assisting Team USA in their third-straight Olympic Gold Medal run.
2021: The 2020 Olympics was delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton were late to join their Team USA teammates in Tokyo as a result of their NBA championship run with the Bucks, the duo made it there in time for the Preliminary round games and ultimately aided USA Basketball in taking home their fourth-straight Olympic Gold.
Be sure to check out our Team USA coverage page at FortyEightMinutes.com.
