USA – Team USA squad strengthened with Prince, Evans, Curry and Green

LAS VEGAS (2010 FIBA World Championship) - USA Basketball have bolstered their already formidable national team squad for 2010-12 with the additions of four players, including Beijing Olympics gold-medal winner Tayshaun Prince.

Prince, NBA Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans of Sacramento, Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Oklahoma City’s Jeff Green have joined the group to increase the USA squad to 31 players.

“We’re excited about the addition of these four outstanding players," said USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo.

"Tayshaun is a versatile veteran who returns to the program after helping the United States win gold in the Olympics and at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship which served as our zone’s Olympic qualifying tournament.

"Jeff was part of the 2008 USA Select Team that trained against the Olympic team and he was again impressive last summer at the national team mini-camp. And in adding Tyreke and Stephen, we’ve brought into the national team fold two of the game’s most exciting and promising newcomers."

The United States took the Beijing Games by storm in 2008, going undefeated to return to the top of the podium at an Olympics or a FIBA World Championship for the first time since the Sydney Games eight years earlier.

Most of the players in Beijing stressed their desire to remain with the program though several are uncertain about this summer because of free agency and other issues.

Team USA boss Mike Krzyzewski, who just coached Duke University to another NCAA title, knows the players that do go to the FIBA World Championship in Turkey will give his country a great shot of reaching the podium.

He is very excited about the newcomers to the squad.

"The addition of Tayshaun, Jeff, Stephen and Tyreke to our national team roster adds additional veteran experience, versatility, and young talent,” Krzyzewski said.

“Although we have a number of players who were members of the 2006-08 national team returning to the 2010-12 national team pool, we are beginning a new selection and team building process and I believe the addition of these four players will help strengthen our national team program in several areas over the next three years.”

While the international basketball world is familiar with Prince because of his past success with Team USA and the Detroit Pistons, it should have a pretty good idea about what the other three players bring to the squad as well because of what each has accomplished at the college and professional level.

Evans and Curry made huge impacts this year in the NBA with Sacramento and Golden State respectively, while Green was excellent in helping Oklahoma City reach the NBA playoffs for the first time.

Curry, who two years ago led Davidson College on an impressive run to the NCAA Elite Eight, represented Team USA at the 2007 USA U19 World Championship in Serbia, helping his team go 8-1 and capture a silver medal.

While a senior at Davidson, he spoke to FIBA.com in this interview about how proud he had been to wear the USA jersey.

This season he averaged 17.5 points, 5.9 assists and 4.5 rebounds in 36.2 minutes per contest for Golden State.

He shot 46.2% from the field and a hugely impressive 43.7% from three-point range.

The son of former NBA player Dell Curry and brother of Seth - a member of the USA squad at last year's FIBA U19 World Championship in New Zealand who now plays for Krzyzewski at Duke - Curry also shot 88.5% from the foul line as a rookie.

The 6ft 3in was runner-up to Evans in the NBA Rookie of the Year voting.

Evans, a standout at the University of Memphis, is a 6ft 6in guard who played and started in 72 games in 2009-10, averaging 20.1 points, 5.8 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 37.2 minutes per contest.

The NBA scoring leader among rookies wore the USA shirt at 2008 Nike Hoop Summit.

The 6ft 9in Green just finished his third NBA season.

He played and started in all 82 regular season games for the Thunder, averaging 15.1 points, 6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.3 steals in 37.1 minutes per contest.

The USA will be in Group B at the FIBA World Championship along with Slovenia, Brazil, Croatia, Iran and Tunisia.

All of the Americans' games at the event will be played in Istanbul.

Las Vegas training camp

USA Basketball also announced on Tuesday that for the fifth consecutive summer, they will hold a training camp in Las Vegas as part of their preparations for the FIBA World Championship.

The camp will run from July 19-24, culminating with a USA Basketball Showcase - a Blue-White intra-squad game.

That will be held on Saturday, July 24, at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV.

“The July 19-24 training camp in Las Vegas not only launches the USA National Team on another three-year quest but it will be an important part of the USA team selection process and its preparations for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey," Krzyzewski said.

FIBA