Kawhi Leonard plans to play with Gregg Popovich again and pursue a gold medal.
Leonard said Sunday at the NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta that he plans to compete with American basketball this summer at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics, which would reunite him with Popovich.
Leonard spent his first seven seasons in the NBA with Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs, before moving on to the Toronto Raptors and now the LA Clippers. Popovich will serve as head coach at the Olympics for the first time.
“My plan is to go,” Leonard said. He helped Popovich and the Spurs win the 2014 NBA Championship and was MVP of that season’s NBA Finals.
The Olympics could be a potentially tight fit for Leonard. The Clippers will likely be one of the contenders to win the Western Conference Finals and play in the NBA Finals, which, if all seven games go through, are scheduled to end on July 22nd.
The Tokyo Olympics begin on July 23 and the United States plays its first match against France on July 25.
“If I feel up to it and feel ready to spend that time, I’ll play,” Leonard said.
USA Basketball is expected to finalize a group of players of about 60 names, many of them remaining from the 44 announced as members of the group last year, a group that includes Leonard, in the not-too-distant future. From there, a team will be chosen and the current plan is to bring this group to Las Vegas around July 1 to begin training camp and a series of exhibition games against other national teams.
U.S. staff, including managing director Jerry Colangelo, men’s national team director Sean Ford, Popovich, and assistant coaches Lloyd Pierce, Steve Kerr and Jay Wright, have been talking for months about plans and contingencies, including players who might wait even if their NBA clubs enter the playoffs.
Many of the best players in the NBA said that by entering the 2019-20 season, they were considering Olympic plans before the pandemic arrived and the Olympics were postponed for a year.
“A lot of people participated during 2020, but the pandemic killed almost everything,” Leonard said.