Making a list
LAS VEGAS — Mike Krzyzewski was just as eager as his players to take a break from the U.S. national team's desert training camp. After all, the coach's newest grandchild was due at any moment.
But before everybody headed off for their last downtime before next month's world championships, Krzyzewski and the U.S. staff settled on a 15-man traveling roster. They think it contains all the ingredients necessary to get back to the top of the basketball world.
"Our roster should play outstanding basketball," Krzyzewski said. "If we don't do that, we have no excuses. Everything is there, every piece. Now we have to do it, which is kind of exciting."
Led by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, the club will reconvene Monday in Las Vegas for three training days and an exhibition game against Puerto Rico before heading to Asia.
Amare Stoudemire and Kirk Hinrich were the only moderately surprising inclusions on the 15-man roster, which will play warmup games in China and Korea before opening the world championships in Japan.
The group also includes Gilbert Arenas, Shane Battier, Chris Bosh, Bruce Bowen, Elton Brand, Dwight Howard, Antawn Jamison, Joe Johnson, Brad Miller and Chris Paul.
Adam Morrison, Luke Ridnour and Shawn Marion — who has a minor knee injury — were not among the players selected for the roster by Krzyzewski and managing director Jerry Colangelo after a week of workouts in Las Vegas.
The U.S. team is shaping up much as Colangelo and Krzyzewski promised: deep, flexible and ego-free to a remarkable degree. The top brass' preachings of teamwork and a higher purpose seem to have caught on with a young roster that will represent the U.S. for the next three years.
"People are going to see that we can play the international game," Wade said. "They say the (knock) on us is that we can't shoot from the outside. Well, we'll see. I think we're going to turn some heads, make some people eat their words."
Krzyzewski and his staff must trim the roster to 12 players by Aug. 18 — one day before his club begins the world championships in Sapporo.
Krzyzewski also revealed a few nuggets of strategy for the tournament: He doesn't plan to have a regular starting lineup, and nobody will play all 40 minutes in any game. The Duke coach wouldn't mind using all 12 players in most games — another way to keep his players' legs fresh and confidence high.
Marion, Morrison and Ridnour weren't cut from the U.S. team in the new selection system championed by Colangelo — they just weren't included on this roster. Kobe Bryant, Chauncey Billups, Paul Pierce and several others who couldn't play next month because of injuries or family commitments still are candidates for future U.S. teams.
In all, 24 players and nonroster invitee Greg Oden will be in the mix for training and competition for at least the next three years, through the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
"Why not be a part of something that you can be proud of doing for the rest of your life?" asked Paul, who emerged as the Americans' top point guard with a dynamite training camp. "We'd probably just be watching TV and playing pickup ball this summer."
