IN the eyes of Austin Reaves, Team USA will be tough to beat in the 2024 Paris Olympics especially now that the team appears to playing as one unit.
Reaves was a recent Manila visitor during his last stop in his Asian tour where he formally signed a partnership deal with Arena Plus at the Shangrila The Fort last Saturday.
The Los Angeles Lakers star’s visit in the Philippines coincided with Olympics in Paris where his teammates LeBron James and Anthony Davis are also with the team.
“They are going to be tough to beat,” said Reaves during a press conference of the partnership deal. “They look a little shaky at first. You just have to give it a little bit of time for these guys to adopt and kind of learn how to play with one another.”
Reaves spent time with Team USA last year when he was part of the FIBA Basketball World Cup squad that played in Manila.
He was one of the crowd favorites during that Team USA run that missed out on a podium finish when they lost to Canada in the bronze medal game.
After missing a podium finish at the World Cup, Team USA is out to win the gold in the Paris Olympics. It goes up against Serbia in the semifinals on Thursday (Friday 3:30 a.m PH time).
Reaves said each of them have been willing to play a role different from their mother ballclubs in the NBA in their quest to bag an Olympic gold in Paris.
“Not one of those guys’ role on that (team) is the same as what they do in a year. I literally just seen a video of KD (Kevin Durant) on Instagram. They asked him if he expects to start or to come off the bench for the remainder of the Olympic run. And he was like, ‘Yeah, we are rolling right now, why change it up?’ For a guy that has scored the most points for Team USA ever, and for him to be coachable, take on the challenge to give the bench a lift is special.”
“You have to tip your hat to a guy like that that really cares about winning. Since all those guys have that bought in to that mindset, they have all the talents in the world, it’s going to take an unbelievable performance from somebody else to beat them,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Reaves signed the partnership deal with ArenaPlus along with Total Gamezone Xtreme Inc. president Rafael Jasper Vicencio and Reaves’ agent Aaron Reilly.
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