Mike DiNovo – USA TODAY 2013
Team USA Basketball executives have extended an invitation to Chicago Bulls power forward Taj Gibson to participate in the Team USA mini-camp which will be held in Las Vegas next month.
The 2013 mini-camp will feature rising NBA stars, newly crowned All-Stars, and members of the 2012 USA Basketball Men’s Select Team, as reported on usabasketball.com.
The purpose of this year’s camp is primarily to identify and evaluate up-and-coming players who could potentially be added to the 2014 USA World Basketball Cup Team and the 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in Brazil, according to USA Basketball’s chief media/communications officer Craig Miller.
Gibson, a fourth-year veteran, may have a leg-up on the competition considering that he was also invited to participate on last summer’s USA Basketball Men’s Select Team. A full roster of this year’s participants will be formally announced next month.
This year marks the seventh time in the last eight summers that Las Vegas has hosted the event. USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo expects a capacity crowd as next month’s squad trains with Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski who has led the USA men’s basketball team to two gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.
The 2013 mini-camp will run July 22-25, concluding with the 2013 USA Basketball Showcase, featuring a Blue-White intrasquad game on the 25th. All events will be held at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV).
Hollie M. Woods is a writer for Rant Sports covering the Chicago Bulls and the NBA. “Like” her on Facebook.
