Blake Griffin, 4 Warriors et al to participate in Team USA minicamp

ByRAMONA SHELBURNE
July 26, 2015, 11:51 AM

— -- Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin will participate in next month's USA Basketball minicamp in Las Vegas and hopes to play in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, a league source told ESPN.

Griffin was forced to withdraw from last year's Team USA training camp for the FIBA World Cup because he was advised by doctors to give a back injury more time to heal.

Griffin was also forced to withdraw from the 2012 team that competed in the Summer Olympics in London after he stepped on the foot of Washington Wizards guard John Wall during a workout and tore the meniscus in his left knee.

Sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein, meanwhile, that the newly crowned champion Golden State Warriors expect to have four representatives at the minicamp: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes.

Curry and Thompson were key members of the Team USA squad that won the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain. Green and Barnes, as ESPN.com reported earlier this month, are recent invitees to the minicamp, which USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo has billed as more of a "reunion" for USAB players, coaches and staffers than a competitive basketball event.

Although USAB has scheduled two days of noncontact workouts and an intrasquad scrimmage on Aug. 13 that will better resemble an All-Star Game, Colangelo has informed the 34 players who were in the USA Basketball player pool as of last September as well as new invitees like Green and Barnes that attendance at the Vegas minicamp is mandatory for any player who wants to be considered for a spot on the 12-man team that will represent the United States at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

The New York Post reported earlier this week that Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, to that end, plans to attend the minicamp even though he's unlikely to participate in any basketball activities so soon after knee surgery. Anthony would be attending purely to state his availability for the 2016 squad.

Other top players who, like Anthony, are still recovering from injuries but could potential be camp attendees include Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant, Indiana's Paul George and Cleveland's Kevin Love.