Advertisement
Sports Now

Eric Gordon selected to USA Basketball Men’s National Team

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
Staff WriterFollow
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Eric Gordon, Olympian?

Not yet, but the Clippers shooting guard was selected Wednesday among the pool of 27 players who will eventually comprise the USA Basketball Men’s National Team, a precursor to making the roster for the 2012 Olympics in London.

Also on the preliminary team list are Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and forward Lamar Odom. The team will compete in the FIBA World Championships from Aug. 28 to Sept. 12 in Turkey, with the U.S. opening play Aug. 28 against Croatia. The U.S. also is paired in the same preliminary-round group with Brazil, Iran, Slovenia and Tunisia.

Advertisement

The team will open training camp in July, after which the roster will be winnowed for the competition in Turkey.

-- Ben Bolch

Sports Now
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

Advertisement