LAS VEGAS – The USA Basketball Men's National Team will hold a minicamp in Las Vegas as it gets ready for the 2019 World Cup and 2020 Olympics.
The 2017-20 USA Basketball National Team will be led by San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. Pulling double duty is no easy task, but Popovich said he's ready for the challenge.
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"It is a huge responsibility, and I will be thinking about it probably on a daily basis to a certain degree because that is a natural thing," Popovich said. "It is a humbling thought to coach that team, but it doesn't preclude me from doing what I am doing with the Spurs. I think Coach K (Duke University's Mike Krzyzewski) did a halfway decent job coaching Duke and winning over and over with USA basketball, so he led the way and he was able to do it, so hopefully I can follow in his footsteps."
Former Spurs player Kawhi Leonard will not attend the two-day minicamp, according to reports. Instead, he will use this time preparing to transition to the Toronto Raptors.
The Spurs traded Leonard to Toronto last week. At some point, Leonard will join Team USA and Popovich, which could make for an awkward situation.
"You have a relationship with individuals over a number of years, and in a professional sense, that relationship stops," Popovich said. "Hopefully, you move on and you continue an off-the-court relationship with people. I have been around here a long time, and there are a lot of people I still keep in touch with, an awful lot of people, from many years ago."
The Spurs' newest shooting guard, DeMar DeRozan, is expected to attend the minicamp, which will give Popovich some quality time with the four-time NBA All-Star.
"I haven't really dealt with him," Popovich said. "He was on the Olympic team, and when I was there, we coached the development group that played against him. So I don't have a personal relationship with Demar at this point."
That is about to change. The national team will train Thursday and Friday at Mendenhall Center on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus.