AFTER Team USA’s disastrous seventh-place showing at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, team building for the 2020 Summer Olympics is getting off on the right foot.

Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry has committed to playing for Team USA in the upcoming Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

“That is the plan, for sure,” Curry said in an interview with ESPN on Wednesday. “You know, obviously knock on wood, you don’t want any injuries or things like that to interfere.”

Curry has played for Team USA before, but not in the Olympics.

He was on the World Cup teams in 2010 and 2014, and both took first place. Curry told ESPN that he’s excited to play in his first Olympics.

“Definitely wanna go,” Curry said. “I’ve never been on the Olympic team. I’ve been on two World Cup Championship gold medal teams. But the Olympics is the experience that I want. And next year will hopefully be it.”

Curry announcing his intention to play now, just under a year before the Olympics, is a good sign for the team. The recent FIBA World Cup was an embarrassment for Team USA, with many talented, high-profile stars pulling out.

The talent drain led to a seventh-place finish, the worst ever for the Americans.

Even though the Olympics tend to draw the big stars, Curry committing now can only have a positive impact going forward. His presence could convince more of the NBA’s best and brightest to join the team and avoid another disappointment like the FIBA World Cup.

While no other big stars have committed like Curry has, Draymond Green recently told CNBC that he hopes to play in the Olympics in 2020, and LeBron James told The Athletic in April that playing for Team USA in 2020 is a possibility. Curry knows that the key to Team USA’s success is getting the NBA’s most talented players to join him on the court.

“We’re still the best,” Curry told ESPN. “If we get the guys that are supposed to be there, in terms of, you know, representing us in the Olympic stage and the commitment’s been there, and I think it’ll be there next year.”

(SD-Agencies)