Jerry Colangelo, Who Selected Kevin Love For Team USA, Said Kevin Love Was Out of Shape

Jerry Colangelo met with media in Tokyo on Friday to talk about what an awesome job he did putting together a team from what is still the deepest pool of talent in the entire world. While discussing this, Colangelo dragged Kevin Love who decided not to join Team USA in Tokyo because of a nagging injury. Via ESPN:

"I didn't think Kevin Love was going to play. I wasn't even sure he had much left to play," Colangelo said. "He reached out to us and said he was in shape and said he felt he owed us. And on the basis of that, we're looking at someone with international experience who at one time was a heck of a rebounder and could still shoot the ball. You know, being like a 12th man on a roster.

"Well, it didn't work out. He wasn't in shape. And he was way behind as it turned out. So you move on. Call it a mistake. Call it giving someone an opportunity. Someone who had equity with us."

Look, if Kevin Love got an invite to Team USA tryouts based on the equity he had built up on previous years, that's fine. If he showed up and was out of shape and couldn't hack it, that's on Love. But they put him on the team!

If Love shouldn't have been on the team, blame the guys who put the team together! Colangelo and Gregg Popovich put him on the 12-man roster and he was about to head to Tokyo when he pulled himself out on July 16th, nine days before their first Olympic game.

Here's the reaction of ESPN's Richard Jefferson to Colangelo's comments.

Team USA can still win the gold medal, but however they finish the Olympics, this team was poorly constructed. If not for fit then for common sense. You can't blame Colangelo for Bradley Beal's late exit because of COVID, but he's the one who was going to let the out of shape guy fly to Tokyo. Then there's the fact that the team had three players join them hours before their first game. That's on Colangelo.