SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson was named to the 20201 USA Men's Basketball Select Team Thursday. Johnson will join 16 other young stars in Las Vegas this summer.
The Select Team is assembled to train with and against Team USA as the squad prepares for the Tokyo games held in July. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich will lead a talent-laden U.S. men's team at the Olympics this year in a bid for his first gold medal. The 12 players named to Team USA last month have combined for 37 All-Star appearances and 21 All-NBA selections, headlined by Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard.
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra was named the Select Team's head coach earlier this week. Mark Few, who is the head coach for the Gonzaga Bulldogs men's collegiate team, and Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley.
In a statement released by the NBA, Team USA's managing director Jerry Colangelo said the Select Team "continues the legacy established by previous Select teams of helping prepare our USA National Team" for the Olympics.
"With all the uncertainty of how many of our Olympic Team members will be available for the USA training camp because of the overlap with the NBA Finals, we chose a USA Select Team consisting of many of the top young NBA players and four players who not only own international experience, but who played recently for USA Basketball in important national team qualifying competitions. If we need to add players to fill out our roster for any of our exhibition games, we feel this USA Select Team has an excellent variety of skilled players to choose from,” Colangelo's statement reads.
The San Antonio Spurs tweeted congratulations to the second-year standout after the Select Team roster was announced.
Johnson started in 67 of the Spurs' xx games during his second season in the NBA. The small forward averaged 12.8 points and 6 rebounds and was named to the NBA's Rising Stars roster in March.