The 2012 Team USA Olympic basketball roster of 12 players will be chosen from a list of 20 candidates. One player who is not among them is Amar’e Stoudemire. While he doesn’t appear to be holding a grudge or displaying any hard feelings, Stoudemire is obviously disappointed that he was not invited to try out for the team.
“It’s definitely not my choice,’’ Stoudemire said according to the NY Post. “I would love to play. My loyalty is with USA Basketball. … If they need me, I’m there.’’
Differences of opinions exist regarding why Stoudemire was not chosen. As the Post reminded us, the Knicks did not allow Amar’e to participate in the FIBA World Championship last summer because they didn’t want him to suffer any type of injury after they had just inked him to a monstrous contract. That decision is believed to have annoyed USA Basketball CEO Jerry Colangelo, so it’s possible he didn’t want to give New York the opportunity to raise a stink again.
As Eye on Basketball pointed out, Amar’e may have also been left off the invite list for basketball reasons. The 2012 team is loaded with talent and includes forwards Blake Griffin and Kevin Love. Both are tremendous players who are playing at an incredibly high level this season, so it is possible that there just isn’t any room for Stoudemire on the 20-man invite list. In any event, I’m sure he is not the only player who is upset he wasn’t asked to help defend the gold medal.
