Team USA is going to have to not only replace Bradley Beal before shipping out to Tokyo. Kevin Love will withdraw from Team USA and will not be playing in the Tokyo Olympics. Love has been dealing with a right leg injury that has kept him out of play for the Cavaliers. The rehab on that will continue while the veteran forward gets ready for the next NBA season.
Agent Jeff Schwartz of @excelbasketball has confirmed news to ESPN and shared statement from Love: “I am incredibly disappointed to not be heading to Tokyo with Team USA, but you need to be at absolute peak performance to compete at the Olympic level and I am just not there yet.” https://t.co/Ph6DfKZOIf
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 16, 2021
Kevin Love was one of the few non-small ball big men on the roster and will need to be replaced. Hopefully, the replacement brings energy and defensive effort. Team USA has not been having a great time getting ready for Tokyo. They have lost two exhibition games and their second game against Australia has already been canceled. The game cancellation comes from Beal and Jerami Grant being placed in health and safety protocols.
There is a rising concern in Japan and Tokyo around the rising level of cases and variants of the disease. Tokyo is under a state of emergency and there will be no fans at Tokyo-based sites, perhaps no fans for any section of the Olympic Games. There are usually concerns with bringing an Olympic Games to a city, but anti-Games protestors have even more ammo to work with as COVID continues to run rampant in much of the world.
