Draymond was left off of this year’s selection process, keeping him from a chance to win three golds.
As Stephen Curry makes his long overdue first appearance as a player on Team USA basketball in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, let’s take a look back at other players who played on the Olympic stage after spending time in Golden State.
Guys like Draymond Green, who won gold in the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, averaging 13.2 minutes per game and 2.6 PPG, 38% FG%, 28% 3PT, 2.4 REB, 1.9 AST.
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Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images
Green was left off of the player pool to be selected for this year’s team, but he won gold in both the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, further cementing his legacy as a future basketball hall-of-famer:
Draymond Green is disappointed to be left off the 41-player pool from which the 12-man U.S. Olympic team is expected to be named, but the two-time gold medalist is ready to step in if asked to be added to the pool later on.
“If I got a call because some guys drop off that list that’s just unforeseen for whatever reasons, and then I need to fill a spot on that team, guess what?” he said in a video published Monday. “I’ll be ready with my bags packed and go play in a third Olympics because I’m not too big to be (a) second (choice).”
Green’s impact came through his elite defensive, sharp playmaking, and vocal leadership in both of the Olympics he won gold in.
Green was jazzed about winning medal two, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic locked down the world:
“For me, personally, this is right up there at the top,” Green said afterward. “When you just think about the road traveled to get here. I mean, we’re in one of the craziest times in this world, at least for anyone here. If you’re here, it’s probably one of the craziest times in the world that we’ve all seen.
“To be pushed back a year, all the things that’s going on, losing guys because of COVID, leaving your family, all of those things. And then the doubt, because as they say, every country continues to get better. And the doubt that we heard over and over again, even from, you turn on sports talk in America, everybody was crushing us. This is special, and it ranks right up at the top for me.”
This was Green’s second gold medal as he was on the Team USA squad that won at the 2016 Rio Games in Brazil. Green is one of only five players to win two gold medals and win three NBA titles, joining Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
