PARIS – Blame the 1992 Dream Team.
If you want to know why the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team isn’t staying in the Olympic Village in Paris with other athletes and those much-discussed cardboard beds, you can trace it back to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and the squad who altered the course of Olympic basketball – while staying in a luxury hotel in Barcelona.
That was the first group of NBA players to play in the Olympics, and they were used to first-class accommodations and were not willing to give those up. Plus, they were among the most famous people in the world and were hounded everywhere they went. Security was cited as a concern.
Each U.S. Olympics basketball team after has followed that model.
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Asked about not staying in the Olympic Village, U.S. star Kevin Durant said, “I don’t think we had a choice,” adding, “I haven’t gotten into any (cardboard) beds since I’ve been doing this whole thing.”
The U.S. men’s and women’s basketball players are among a few athletes who do not stay in the village. Tennis star Novak Djokovic is not in the village. Roger Federer and Serena and Venus Williams also stayed elsewhere during the 2008 Beijing Games. USA Track and Field would not confirm nor deny to USA TODAY Sports if its high-profile athletes, like Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, are staying in the Olympic Village, citing security.
Durant, who is participating in his fourth Olympics, has spent time in the village at previous Games and will do so again this year.
“The last few times I’ve done the Olympics, we’ve spent our fair share in the Olympic Village and felt like a part of the group there,” Durant said. “We stay outside of it, but we get our time right before the opening ceremony. As we go to other sports as well, we get to walk through the village. So I think we get enough time there.”
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