Bryant, James to lead US team

CHICAGO (AP) -- MVP Kobe Bryant will be heading to his first Olympics, and he'll have LeBron James and Dwyane Wade with him.
They will lead a U.S. Olympic basketball team that was announced Monday and hopes to capture the gold medal in Beijing in August after a third-place showing in Athens four years ago. They'll have plenty of help.
Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd were among the 12 players placed on the squad. They were joined by Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams.
"It was a very difficult selection process," USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said during a news conference. "When you have as many outstanding players as we have in this country -- to select a group of 12 is obviously going to leave out a number of outstanding people."
The team was selected without a tryout. It will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and meet there July 20-25 to train and play an exhibition against Canada before heading overseas. The Americans open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10.
Although the Americans captured the gold at the Sydney Games in 2000, they no longer dominate international play as they once did. The talent gap has narrowed and many top NBA players have chosen to not play for the national team in recent years.
Now, the U.S. team appears loaded. Then again, the Americans went 5-3 in Athens and lost for the first time since NBA players started competing in 1992 even though they had James, Anthony, Wade and Tim Duncan. That group got routed by Puerto Rico before losing to Lithuania and Argentina, but this one is confident it will take the gold.
"It's really the world's game. We think we're the best at playing that game," said coach Mike Krzyzewski, warning that "unless we show the respect to the rest of the world that it is the world's game" there will be no gold medal.
Wade and Anthony said they didn't know what to expect when they went to Athens.
"I've always seen greatness in the Olympics, but that was never one of my dreams," Wade said. "I never really expected to be on the Olympic team, especially in my first year. I didn't have a clue what I was getting into. ... Now, we respect the game so much. We respect the team basketball that they play internationally so much."
Anthony saw the 2004 Games as a chance to "have some of the best workouts in the summer time with the best players in the world" and went there thinking "the USA is supposed to win everything."
"Going through that experience really helped me to learn the international game," Anthony said.
He's part of a deep team that includes one of the best shooters (Redd) and defensive players (Prince). There are role players and scorers, including the two biggest.
Bryant just won his first MVP and led the Los Angeles Lakers to the finals. James averaged 30.0 points -- just enough to beat Bryant for the scoring title.
Those two along with Anthony, Kidd and Dwight Howard started for a team that went unbeaten in the Olympic qualifying tournament last year. Eight of the 12 players headed to Beijing played on that team and six played in the 2006 world championships.
"We're a team already," Krzyzewski said. "The thing that this program has done is ... provide continuity and relationships. ... We'll hit the ground running."
Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire withdrew from Olympic consideration, apparently concerned about pushing his body too hard after knee surgery in 2005 and 2006. So did Detroit's Chauncey Billups, who would have had a tough time making the team given the depth in the backcourt.
Wade's season ended in March because of a sore left knee that had been bothering him since surgery in 2007. He started working out in his hometown Chicago in May, and James and Paul joined him to help sharpen his game. Colangelo visited recently and left convinced the 6-foot-4 guard was healthy.
"This was to see how far along he had come in his rehab," Colangelo said. "That was the whole thing. Plus, I had a little conversation I wanted to have with him. We took care of that. I watched him work. I saw him do a few things in terms of explosiveness that showed me that he was pretty much back."
Trainer Tim Grover has been working out with Wade. Colanagelo said Grover assured him the Miami Heat star will completely ready when the team gathers in Las Vegas next month.
"I feel great," Wade said.
And even better with a gold medal dangling from his neck.