The United States announced its 12-player Olympic basketball roster, led by Thunder star Kevin Durant and the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony, with the goal of winning a third straight gold medal.
Durant and Anthony are the only players on the team with Olympic experience, as a number of stars, including LeBron James, decided to skip Rio.
Also chosen Monday for the team were: Golden State’s Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Harrison Barnes; Toronto’s Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan; Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving; Indiana’s Paul George; Chicago’s Jimmy Butler; Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins; and the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan.
‘‘We’re very, very positive about the talent level and then the individual strengths of this team,’’ said USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo. ‘‘We’re long, we’re athletic. I think we have some terrific defenders as well as terrific shooters, and the versatility is over the top.’’
Irving was the MVP of the 2014 Basketball World Cup on a US team that included Thompson, Cousins, and DeRozan and easily won gold.
The Americans should roll into Rio as the favorites. Yet they won’t look quite as imposing after the withdrawals of NBA MVP Stephen Curry and All-Stars such as Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and James Harden.
Colangelo said having a national team pool, which he began in 2005, always has the Americans ready for player losses. There were 31 players in this year’s pool, and he had to go deep into it — and eventually beyond it — to find 12, as the usual factors that can knock players out were joined by the Zika virus and other concerns in Brazil.
‘‘In the past we dealt with things like free agency, injuries, personal issues that might prevent someone from moving forward,’’ said Colangelo. “This year it was exacerbated by circumstances beyond anyone’s control, and that was the reality, the speculation, and the circumstance in Rio.
‘‘But at the end of the day, and this is important: This is not about who isn’t here, this is about who is here.’’
That includes Anthony, who will become the first US men’s basketball player to appear in four Olympics, and Durant, who set a US record by averaging 19.5 points in the London Games in 2012.
‘‘Carmelo and Durant serve as both individuals who have been there, done that, and won gold medals,’’ Colangelo said.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will coach the Americans for the third and final time, tying Henry Iba’s team record, and be assisted by Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau, and former Oklahoma City assistant Monty Williams.
They will lead a team with strong NBA credentials — nine players were All-Stars this season — but a little short on international experience.
The toughest competition for the US likely will be Spain and Lithuania.
The final and perhaps biggest blow was James, who would have joined Anthony with a fourth selection. He pulled out last week after leading the Cavaliers to the NBA championship.
The heaviest losses came at the point guard spot, where Curry passed after sustaining knee and ankle injuries in the playoffs. Former Olympians Paul and Westbrook pulled out, and Washington’s John Wall was injured. What was a position of strength became so depleted that Lowry was added last week even though he wasn’t even a member of the pool.
But Colangelo focused on the strength of the team that was selected, adding that he and Krzyzewski are excited about the challenge of working with new faces.
‘‘Their credentials speak for themselves,’’ said Colangelo, “and now it’s just a matter of Coach having some time with the group, because there’s so many new people, just getting everyone to blend in.’’
The Americans will open training camp in Las Vegas July 18 and play five exhibition games before traveling to Rio.
Swimming
Katie Ledecky has set the bar so high, it’s a bit of a disappointment when she doesn’t set a world record.
The 19-year-old has no complaints.
She’s heading back to the Olympics.
Getting that formality out of the way in her first event of the US swimming trials in Omaha, Ledecky held off a persistent challenge from Leah Smith to win the 400-meter freestyle.
‘‘The last 150, I just kept telling myself, ‘Rio! Rio! Rio!'?’’ said Ledecky, who is also a big favorite in two other freestyle races to come.
Ledecky set a blistering pace over the first half of the race, putting her more than two seconds ahead of the time from her record-setting performance at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in Australia.
But Ledecky tired a bit over the final 200, another world mark slipping away when she touched in 3 minutes, 58.98 seconds. Smith pushed the winner all the way, also claiming an Olympic berth by finishing at 4:00.65.
The crowd of more than 14,000 groaned a bit when they saw Ledecky’s time, but it was still the third-fastest in history.
Also Monday, Dana Vollmer locked up another trip to the Olympics less than 16 months after giving birth to her first child.
She finished second in the 100 butterfly behind Olympic rookie Kelsi Worrell, one of several young swimmers already signaling a changing of the guard in the first two days of the meet.
One night after stunningly missing out on an Olympic berth in the 400 individual medley, an ailing Ryan Lochte swam two more grueling races to qualify for the final of the 200 freestyle.
Shaking off the pain of a groin injury, Lochte got through the morning preliminaries and posted the fifth-fastest time in the evening semifinals.
But Lochte has his work cut out for him to earn an Olympic berth in Tuesday’s final, and he’s admittedly having trouble with his kicks and turns. He finished in 1:47.58 seconds, getting passed by both Conor Dwyer and Clark Smith on the final lap of their semifinal heat.
‘‘All I wanted to do was get a lane for tomorrow and that’s what I did,’’ Lochte said. ‘‘Tomorrow is definitely going to be rough, and it’s going to be fast.’’
Dwyer, who already earned a spot on the Olympic team in the 400 free, was the top qualifier at 1:46.96.
There was nearly an even bigger shocker in the semifinals of the women’s 100 backstroke. Defending Olympic champion Missy Franklin, one of America’s biggest stars at the London Games four years ago, got off to an even slower start than usual and barely qualified for Tuesday’s final.
Franklin rallied just to finish fourth in her heat and wound up with the next-to-slowest qualifying time at 1:00.45 — a mere 0.04 from missing a spot in the final altogether. Thirty-three-year-old Natalie Coughlin, a 12-time Olympic medalist, also slipped into the final with last spot at 1:00.46.
Olivia Smoliga was fastest at 59.16.
‘‘I didn’t see anything,’’ Franklin said. ‘‘I just knew I had to get my hand on the wall.’’
Cordes, who just missed out on a breaststroke spot at the 2012 trials, finally got over the Olympic hump. He won in 59.18, followed by Miller at 59.26.
‘‘I definitely carried that for four years,’’ Cordes said, referring to his third-place finish four years ago. ‘‘It’s been in the back of my mind throughout many practices and many points, and I'm happy this time it’s a little bit different.’’
Deaf swimmer Marcus Titus finished sixth, missing out on his first Olympics at age 30.
‘‘I did the best I could,’’ Titus said. ‘‘That was a hard race.’’
