U.S. national team forward Kawhi Leonard will not participate in the Paris Olympics, USA Basketball announced Wednesday.
Boston Celtics defenseman Derrick White will play for Team USA in place of the Los Angeles Clippers star, who opted out over the summer to prepare for the 2024-25 NBA season.
“Kawhi has been preparing for the Olympics for the past few weeks and has had some good workouts in Las Vegas,” USA Basketball said. “He felt ready to compete. However, he respects that USA Basketball and the Clippers have decided it is in his best interest to spend the remainder of the summer preparing for the upcoming season instead of competing in the Olympic Games in Paris.”
It would have been the Summer Olympics debut for Leonard, who missed 12 of the Clippers’ final 14 games last season because of inflammation in his right knee.
The Americans’ opening match is on July 28 against Serbia.
Leonard is a two-time NBA champion, six-time All-Star and seven-time All-Defensive Team selection. His 68 starts in the 2023-24 season are his most since 2016-17. He missed the entire 2021-22 season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Leonard, 33, has averaged 20 points, 6.4 rebounds, three assists and 1.7 steals in 696 games for the San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors and Clippers.
White, 30, played for Team USA at the 2019 World Cup. He signed a four-year contract worth about $118 million last month.
White was selected to the All-Defensive Second Team for the second straight season in 2023-24, averaging 15.2 points, 5.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 73 starts.
He shot 40.4 percent from 3-point range in the playoffs and averaged 16.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 19 postseason games, leading the Celtics to a record 18th title.
White was drafted in the first round (29th overall) by San Antonio in 2017 and traded to Boston in February 2022.
