'Did I say Booker?' Paul Pierce picks Devin Booker, Kevin Durant for Team USA in 2024 Paris Olympics
Paul Pierce was just making sure.
"Did I say Booker?"
Picking who he believes should be on the next year's Team USA squad for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Pierce named Phoenix Suns All-Star Devin Booker as one of the 12 players on Showtime's "KG Certified with Kevin Garnett and Tony Allen."
Garnett, Allen and Pierce were on the 2007-08 NBA champion Celtics squad.
Booker won gold in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after leading the Suns to the NBA Finals.
This has remained a hot topic of discussion nearly two weeks after Team USA didn't medal in the FIBA World Cup. With an outcry for USA to put its best players on the floor, LeBron James has reportedly talked with Suns superstar Kevin Durant and Warriors superstar Stephen Curry about playing for Team USA in the Olympics.
Curry has never played in an Olympics, but having Steve Kerr as head coach may serve as an extra incentive. Kerr and Curry have won four NBA titles as a coach-player combination.
Pierce named James, Durant and Curry right off the bat to play for Team USA. Garnett co-signed those three, calling them the "ambassadors" who'll pass down knowledge to the next group to represent Team USA.
Durant has won three Olympic gold medals as he and Booker were teammates on the 2021 team while James has captured Olympic gold twice.
Pierce rounded out his starting five with Lakers big Anthony Davis and Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum. He then continued with Heat big Bam Adebayo and Blazers guard Damian Lillard before asking if he had named Booker yet.
Tatum, Adebayo and Lillard were on Team USA's last Olympic championship team in Tokyo as well.
After naming Booker, Pierce went with Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown and Heat guard Jimmy Butler before Garnett interrupted and asked him where are the big men for this team.
Pierce responded by saying James and Durant can play the four, but added Jaren Jackson Jr., who was part of Team USA's FIBA World Cup squad. Jackson didn't play in the bronze medal game against Canada that Team USA lost.
Jackson Jr. sat with an illness as did Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram and Magic forward Paolo Banchero.
Garnett then interjected himself into the debate again and called for Zion Williamson to be in the conversation, but he and Pierce both agreed Timberwolves All-Star Anthony Edwards should be on Team USA in 2024.
Edwards was the best player on Team USA.
The group also talked about Ja Morant being a candidate for Team USA as going overseas will be an opportunity for him to grow and mature.
Morant will serve a 25-game suspension to start the season without pay "for conduct detrimental to the league."
The NBA concluded that Morant "intentionally and prominently" showed a gun in Memphis during a live-streamed video May 13 just less than two months after being suspended eight games without pay for the live streaming of a video on March 4 in which he displayed a firearm while in "an intoxicated state" at a Denver area nightclub.
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Paul Pierce picks Suns' Devin Booker, Kevin Durant for Team USA in 2024 Olympics
