Having just watched LeBron James again stand out on a court filled with America’s best basketball players, Team USA managing director Grant Hill thought about the one night when he really wanted to see James play and didn’t.
Hill had the date highlighted on his calendar — Feb. 9, 2023 — a work assignment that had a chance to be one of the most special of his career as a broadcaster.
James was chasing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record, a testament to greatness and longevity and skill, the qualities that certainly appealed to a Hall of Famer like Hill.
And if things broke right, Hill would be courtside to witness history on the call for TNT when the Lakers hosted the Milwaukee Bucks.
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Instead, James broke the record two days earlier. And after an emotionally and physically exhausting push to 38,387 career points, he had the night off when Hill came to town.
Instead, Feb. 9, 2023, would have to take on a different significance, one Hill smiled about more than a year later in Las Vegas during Team USA training camp ahead of the Paris Olympics.
“At halftime I go in the back to use the restroom, I’m coming out, and he’s on the court,” Hill told The Times. “And I’m, I think I’m doing a game with Reggie [Miller]. So me and Reggie were talking to LeBron, I was like, ‘Dude, I need you in Paris.’ And, you know, I say it to everybody.
“And he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m in.”’
James’ former coach and Team USA assistant Tyronn Lue connected Hill and James on the phone. The two began to text a lot, and when Hill landed Joel Embiid’s commitment for Paris, James was the first to text.
To hear James tell it, there were other factors at play, mainly approval from wife Savannah. Team USA’s disappointing play in last year’s FIBA World Cup, where they placed fourth, helped turn the 2024 squad into one of the best collections of talent America has assembled on the basketball court.
Yet for James, could that moment — one game after he set the scoring record as part of a Lakers team that was about to drop to six games below .500 — have been the right time to make the pitch? The chances to win were sparse.
Yet Hill had offered the NBA’s new all-time leading scorer a chance that could ultimately be James’ best — and last — chance for a championship.
They all have their reasons, the 12 NBA players who have given months of their offseason to globetrot from Las Vegas to Dubai to London to Lille, France, and ultimately to Paris.
For Anthony Davis, it’s a chance to relive an important moment in his life from a completely different seat.
In 2012, Davis was a 19-year-old fresh off of becoming the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft when he earned a spot on Team USA. He caught lobs in blowout wins over Nigeria and Tunisia and France, but his job was to mostly watch, learn and clap.
“I was the guy cheering for everybody, the towel waver, the rookie at 19 years old and just enjoying that experience,” Davis said. “But I know the role and experience will be different just being an integral part of this team, doing the game plans and the schematics and stuff, being incorporated into that, whereas in ’12, A.D.’s on the bench and you just cheer.
“So I’m looking forward to the experience of being a true part of this team, being a vet in the Olympics on this team and trying to win another gold medal.”
The 2012 Games in London, though, provided Davis with more than a gold. It linked him with Kobe Bryant, put him on a team with James and helped provide the blueprint for a successful NBA career.
“I still remember this time where we were there and we had a team dinner and coming fresh out of college, I mean, I got drafted, but I didn’t play a game or anything, checks weren’t really coming yet, you know? And so in college, I would wear sweats. And we had a team dinner. I come in a full sweatsuit and everybody is like dressed to the nines, like looking real nice. And I walk in, I’m like, ‘Oh, s—.’ And that’s when they all got on me. Like, you know, ‘Don’t ever do this again.’ Especially Kobe. Like he really got on me.
“I think that’s where our bond, first connecting, we got really close.”
It was professionally and personally invaluable.
“I think it’s very pivotal just because I think I got a jump start that most rookies didn’t get, being around all them guys and learning. Watching how they work, how to be a true professional, how to come to work every day and grind and work, you know, especially for, at that time, we were trying to go for a gold.
“So, it wasn’t just like a pickup game. No, everybody was really locked in. And I was able to see that firsthand and be able to take that back with me.”
In the early days of Team USA training camp in Las Vegas, the group’s oldest player was delivering the lessons.
“He’s been passionate, he’s been responsive, he’s been incredibly engaged,” Hill said of James. “And so we’re lucky to have his presence. … His voice, like just, it’s loud, and it penetrates. He’s like, what do you call it, a conductor. Yes. Yeah. And that’s important. And it’s just been fun watching him.
“…And for a lot of the young guys, there’s so much to learn from somebody.”
In addition to the chance to again win gold — it’d be James’ third after Olympic wins in 2008 and 2012 — he’ll get his first chance to play with Stephen Curry. James and Kevin Durant, who have been separated by late-career injuries, get a chance to rejoin. He gets to be coached by Steve Kerr, someone who coached against him in multiple NBA Finals.
And James can be at the foreground of the Summer Games alongside Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson while still playing effective basketball.
“I’m still playing at a high level. I still love the game of basketball,” James said. “Team USA has done well by me and so I felt like this summer was important.”
So he enters these Olympic Games undoubtedly in one of the last chapters of his career, the Lakers trying to work around salary-cap constraints and limited trade assets to improve in a conference where everyone else is getting better. Maybe there’s another push to be made in Los Angeles.
And maybe, if James is going to win at the highest level, it’s going to happen somewhere else.
Yes, like Hill told him then, Team USA needs James in Paris. But maybe James needs it too.
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