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During the pre-Olympic debut against South Sudan, the United States barely won the game thanks to a LeBron James layup. It was a close 101-100 result that left many scratchign their heads in America. How was it possible for Team USA to struggle so much during a game against South Sudan? Not even the Sudanese players could quite believe what was going on. Some NBA stars already sounded the alarm, Joel Embiid spoke to the New York Times last week about LeBron James being too old for the elite. Now, Kevin Durant is also expressing his concerns over the Lakers star's age and the athletic skill that may be taxing forhim. Watching the reaction from LeBron James himself after a second teammate dissed him should be interesting.
Durant himself is already a veteran, he has an Achilles tendon tear from which he recovered long ago. It's safe to say he is still delivering great numbers but even he feels LeBron James is not the same he used to be. Speaking to the Paris media, Durant said: "Of course, we're older and we all have mileage on our bodies. We figure out ways to be effective, just as Jo has as he's gone through injuries. The thing about greatness is that you adjust and continue to find ways to be effective. 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."
Durant joins LeBron and Curry for iconic photo
As a way to promote Team USA, the pictures taken for posterity had a surprise saved for the three most veteran players. There is an iconic photo of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan posing together with their uniforms just before the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona started. To those who are not aware, that was known as the Dream Team due to how impressive the roster was. LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant posed for the exact same picture 32 years after that one. By the looks of it, it will be just as iconic as the original. Check it out!