Pop, Colangelo still committed to Team USA for 2021
With the Tokyo Olympics postponed until 2021, USA Basketball's current brain trust, including head coach Gregg Popovich, will remain intact.
"The commitments everyone made for 2020 are still there, we're all-in and we're committed," USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst. "It's important to deal with the unknowns and this virus. This, too, shall pass, and we'll be back for everyone's well-being."
On Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach agreed to postpone the Summer Games "to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021" due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
How the new timing will play out against the backdrop of a resumed NBA season is unknown. Earlier this year, Colangelo and Popovich released a preliminary pool of 44 players for this Olympic cycle. In February, Colangelo said there would be no tryouts for the final squad.
"We will follow the leader," Colangelo said, according to Windhorst. "We have to wait to see how everything is laid out and we'll make the adjustment. Our players are NBA players first, let's face that."