By Chris Sheridan
ESPN Insider
Gilbert Arenas is gung ho, Chris Bosh is ready to jump on board, too, and Carmelo Anthony has been interviewed by national team czar Jerry Colangelo about representing the United States at the 2006 World Championship in Japan and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, ESPN.com has learned.
Colangelo also has met briefly with several players, including Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince of the Detroit Pistons, and held longer face-to-face meetings with others to ask for a three-year commitment to the U.S. national team.
Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Amare Stoudemire and Tim Duncan are also on the short list of players Colangelo would like to add to the team's core, but he has not yet spoken to all of them.
The toughest player to convince could be Duncan, whose parting words for the international basketball federation as he left Athens -- "FIBA sucks" -- indicate his strong unwillingness to ever play in another international competition. Duncan felt the referees treated him unfairly during the Athens Olympics.
If logistics allow, Colangelo plans to speak to as many as 35 players before extending any formal invitations. The first official members of the team probably will not be announced until the All-Star break in mid-February.
"I've met with five players and laid out everything expected of them regarding the commitment, and what's expected of them on and off the court," Colangelo told ESPN.com. "So far, I'm five-for-five with the guys I've spoken to about participating. And some players who were pessimistic in their comments a couple of months ago are now soliciting an invitation."
Paul Pierce, Elton Brand, Wade, Michael Redd, Lamar Odom, Dwight Howard and others have expressed interest -- some publicly, some through back channels -- in playing for USA Basketball as the American federation tries to recover from the humiliation of a bronze-medal finish at the Athens Olympics and a sixth-place showing at the 2002 World Championship.
"Any time your country seeks you out to represent it, it's an honor," Bosh said. "Ever since I saw the Dream Team play in '92 [when he was 8], it was such a big-time thing. It made a big impression on me. They were killing guys."
Bryant has expressed a strong desire to play for the national team after his sexual-assault trial kept him from playing on the 2004 Olympic team, while Jermaine O'Neal said he would like to play again but is uncertain about making a three-year commitment.
O'Neal and LeBron James both said they had not yet spoken to Colangelo.
A few other high-profile stars, including Shaquille O'Neal, Tracy McGrady and Mike Bibby, appear to be off the radar for now. But with Colangelo trying to stock the national team roster with as many as 24 players, he is building in wiggle room for players who might want to play in the World Championship or the Olympics, but not both.
In an effort to rebound from its three losses each in Athens and Indianapolis -- the first ever by U.S. teams using NBA players -- the U.S. federation has moved away from the selection-by-committee process it had used for nearly a decade, giving Colangelo full authority to assemble the roster.
"This is not necessarily going to involve the top guys in terms of talent," Colangelo said. "There's going to be additions, deletions. It'll be a fluid process. This is not a situation where a guy is invited and he's a lock."
Colangelo believes there is only so much room for superstars on the next U.S. team, and he'll attempt to balance the roster with role players who would work well within the team concept and whose specialties would include outside shooting, shot-blocking and man-to-man defending.
He also said there will be one significant change for the next U.S. team from the one that went to Athens: No more entourages.
"When we break camp, we're leaving on a mission. No entourages and no families are heading to the Far East," Colangelo said. "We'll bring families in for the medal round if we make it." Duke's Mike Krzyzewski will coach the U.S. team at the Worlds in Japan next summer and the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, and the assistant coaches will be Mike D'Antoni of the Phoenix Suns, Nate McMillan of the Portland Trail Blazers and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse.
If the Americans fail to win the World Championship next summer, they'll also have to field a team for an Olympic qualifying tournament in 2007.
All three of those teams will train in Las Vegas, which is close to finalizing a three-year deal to become the site of the national team's training camp.
The U.S. team that will compete in Japan will play two exhibitions in China and two others in South Korea, making stops along the way at U.S. military bases to hold practices.
Colangelo said several NBA teams had offered the services of their overseas-based scouts to compile reports on international players, teams and coaches.
