Nets star James Harden backs out of commitment to U.S. Olympic team due to hamstring injury
Nets star James Harden has withdrawn from the USA men’s national basketball team for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Harden battled a nagging hamstring injury for a large portion of the second half of the Nets’ season and does not want to risk re-injury. He missed 21 regular-season games with a right hamstring strain and aggravated his injury three more times, including in the opening seconds of Game 1 of Brooklyn’s second-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Harden returned for Games 5, 6 and 7, but his mobility was visibly restricted.
That mobility improved gradually, but he was not himself and only averaged 14 points and eight assists in his final three games. The Nets eventually lost to the Bucks in overtime in Game 7.
Nets general manager Sean Marks said star players deciding to play in the Olympics would be a collaborative decision. Kevin Durant will play for Team USA, and Kyrie Irving, who suffered a nasty ankle injury in Game 4 against the Bucks, will not.
”We’ll sit down with the player and also with the performance team and map out, this is what it looks like,” Marks said in his end-of-the-season press conference. “I think our guys have been through this enough to realize what’s best for them, what’s best for their body, and what their ultimate goal is. It’s very difficult to turn down playing for your country and having the opportunity to go out there and having a heck of a summer and win an Olympic gold medal is their objective. For them to have to turn that down they’ve got to look at the big picture and say, am I not healthy.”
