Kevin Durant, Steph Curry address Team USA’s perceived age issue: ‘The thing about greatness is that you adjust’

PARIS – Joel Embiid recently suggested Team USA’s stars were old, and their advantaged ages may cause outsiders to overrate their collective might.

Two of the players Embiid was talking about agree with him, to a point.

“Of course, we’re older and we all have mileage on our bodies,” said Kevin Durant, 35, who is Team USA’s all-time leading scorer. “But we figure out ways to be effective, just as Joe has as he’s gone through injuries.”

Embiid, 30, has battled a host of injuries throughout his career, and chose playing for the U.S. over France — where he also gained citizenship — at the Olympics.

While Durant acknowledged that he was aware of Embiid’s comments, Steph Curry — sat next to Durant at an Olympic press conference in Paris — suggested ignorance and asked for the context. He mistakenly replied that Embiid had made them on a podcast. “What I’m saying is there’s too many podcasts out there,” Curry, 36, added.

Team USA, winners of four consecutive golds and a prohibitive favorite for a fifth, is made up of 11 current NBA All-Stars who are considered future hall of famers. But Embiid’s point was that the team had been given too much credit before any games were played.

Embiid’s comments, told to New York Times Magazine before the start of Team USA’s training camp but published July 20, caused a stir outside of the American national team.

Embiid’s comments have caused a stir (Paul Harding/Getty Images)

“You look at the talent that the U.S. has, but there’s equal talent on other teams,” Embiid said. “And the talent that’s on the U.S. team, you also got to understand most of those guys are older. The LeBron now is not the LeBron that was a couple of years ago. So it’s a big difference. Everybody would also tell you, and you can see for yourself, the athletic LeBron, dominant that he was a couple of years ago, is not the same that he is now. I think people get fooled by the names on paper. But those names have been built throughout their career, and now they’re older. They’re not what they used to be.”

Embiid used James, 39, as the example, but the American team has six players who are 30 or older. A seventh — Kawhi Leonard — was sent home by USA executives because it was deemed his chronic knee swelling would not allow him to play at a high enough level during the Olympics.

GO DEEPER

LeBron James, Steph Curry had a ‘healthy resentment’ — Olympics offer something new

The irony of Embiid signaling out James, and the timing of publication, is that James has been Team USA’s top player through the exhibition season. He is leading the team in scoring and assists, and twice rescued the Americans from late deficits with 25 points against South Sudan (on July 20, the date Embiid’s interview was published, and 11 of his 20 points late in the fourth quarter Monday against Germany. James averages 14.6 points and 3.8 assists for Team USA.

Neither James nor Embiid have addressed the comments publicly and Durant said they were not a topic of conversation inside the team.

“The thing about greatness is that you adjust and continue to find ways to be effective,” Durant added Thursday when asked about James. “That’s what LeBron has done. He’s not running and jumping the same way he was when he was 25, 26 years old, but he’s still jumping pretty high and running pretty fast.”

Curry said the team still relies on their younger members too.“It’s a 5-man team (on the court at one time), so you’ve got to put it all together,” he said.

Durant is practicing with the team but has yet to play due to a calf strain suffered before the start of camp. Team USA’s first game in Paris is against Serbia at 5.15pm local (11.15am ET) on Sunday.