Four Former UK MBB Stars Chosen for 2021 USA Men’s Select Team
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Next week’s USA Basketball Olympic training camp in Las Vegas will be filled with former Kentucky men’s basketball players.
With Wildcats Bam Adebayo (Miami Heat) and Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns) having already been selected for the U.S. Men’s National Team that will compete at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, four additional players – Tyler Herro (Miami Heat), Keldon Johnson (San Antonio Spurs), Immanuel Quickley (New York Knicks) and PJ Washington (Charlotte Hornets) – were chosen for the 2021 USA Basketball Select Team that will train with the Olympic squad.
The 17-player Select Team will train daily with the U.S. National Team from July 6-9 at UNLV’s Mendenhall Center.
Since the development of the USA Basketball Men’s National Team program in 2006, USA Basketball has selected and utilized six (2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016 and 2019) USA Select Teams to help the USA National Team prepare for major international competitions.
Fifteen Select Team players, including seven who will play for the United States in Tokyo later this summer, have gone on the represent the U.S. in Olympic play and those athletes have won a combined 19 gold medals. Those former Select Team players include Booker and DeMarcus Cousins.
Earlier this week, Adebayo and Booker accepted invites to be a part of the 12-member National Team roster that will compete July 25-Aug. 8 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
Adebayo and Booker will make their debut for the 15-time Olympic gold medalist U.S. National Team, which is seeking its fourth straight gold medal at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad. A Wildcat has been a part of the previous three U.S. gold medals with Tayshaun Prince in 2008, Anthony Davis in 2012 and Cousins in 2016.
In addition to Adebayo and Booker suiting up for Team USA, former Kentucky players Trey Lyles and Mychal Mulder made Canada’s Senior National Team that is currently competing in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The champion of the six-team tournament will earn a spot in this year’s Olympics.
The Select Team is comprised of some of the game’s brightest young stars, which the quartet of Herro, Johnson, Quickley and Washington – four members of the 2018-19 UK team – certainly qualify as.
Herro has scored more than 1,500 points in two seasons in the NBA and averaged 15.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game a season after helping the Heat to the 2020 NBA Finals. Herro took the 2020 NBA Bubble by storm by becoming the youngest player to score 30 or more points in the conference finals and the youngest player to start in the NBA Finals. Herro was voted the Southeastern Conference Newcomer of the Year in 2019 and led the Wildcats to the Elite Eight. He was selected 13th overall in 2019 by the Heat.
After biding his time in San Antonio in his rookie season, Johnson has emerged as one of the faces of the proud San Antonio franchise. He averaged 12.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game and became the first Spur with at least 20 points and at least 20 rebounds in the same game since Tim Duncan in 2013. The 2019 SEC Freshman of the Year also made the All-SEC Second Team at Kentucky and played a key part on the same Elite Eight team as Herro. The Spurs selected Johnson with the 29th overall pick in the 2019 draft.
Quickley continued his meteoric rise over the last few years as one of the NBA’s best rookies this season. He averaged 11.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game, including 11 games with 20 or more points. Quickley, NBA All-Rookie Second Team selection, was one of the key sparks that saw the Knicks earn the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and make the NBA Playoffs for the first time since 2013. Quickley was named the 2020 SEC Player of the Year after leading the SEC regular-season champs in scoring (16.1 points per game), 3-pointers (62) and 3-point shooting (42.8%). He was chosen with the 25th overall pick in the 2020 draft.
Washington just completed his second season in Charlotte. He appeared in 64 games this past season, averaging 12.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. Washington was the only first- or second-year player to average 10.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per game this past season, according to the Hornets. Washington was tabbed a third-team All-America selection by all four NCAA-recognized All-America teams after a banner 2018-19 season that culminated in a run to the Elite Eight. The Hornets picked Washington 12th overall in the 2019 draft.
When the 2020-21 season began, a staggering 31 players were on NBA opening-day rosters (including two-way and inactive lists) played and finished their college basketball careers at Kentucky. Underscoring the fact that no other school in the country can match UK’s ability to develop players and put them in the NBA, UK’s 31 players were once again the most of any college basketball program, beating the next-closest school (Duke with 26) by five players.
Kentucky has enjoyed unprecedented success at putting players in the NBA under John Calipari. In the 11 previous seasons of the Calipari era, 41 players have been selected in the NBA Draft, more than any other school. Included in the recent run are 31 first-round picks, three No. 1 overall selections (Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns and John Wall) and 21 lottery selections.
Calipari’s players have entered the league NBA-ready. His players have garnered 23 All-Star selections, with Davis winning the game’s MVP honor in 2017. Derrick Rose was named NBA MVP in 2011. Six of his players have been tabbed All-NBA, three have been named NBA Rookie of the Year, and 15 players from Calipari’s first 11 teams at Kentucky have made the NBA All-Rookie teams.
Using figures compiled by basketball-reference.com and spotrac.com, Calipari-coached players only (which includes Rose but not Rajon Rondo) have amassed nearly $3 billion ($2.96) in career NBA contracts. In the 12 seasons Calipari has been the head coach at Kentucky, his players have totaled nearly $2.6 billion in NBA contracts. In just the 2020-21 season alone, former UK players are slated to make more than $295 million. Calipari-coached players only (which includes Rose but not Rajon Rondo) will make just about the same thing.
Calipari and Kentucky have had multiple players selected in the first round of the NBA Draft in 11 straight seasons, the only program since the draft went to two rounds in 1989 to accomplish such a feat. No other school or coach in the country has had a first-round pick in each of the last 11 seasons. Calipari is the only coach in the history of the sport to have four players drafted No. 1 overall (Rose – 2008, Wall – 2010, Davis – 2012, Towns – 2015).
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
