NBA Breaking News: MVP Kevin Durant Withdraws From Team USA Basketball

The NBA’s regular season MVP has decided to take a break from basketball for a while. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant has announced that he will withdraw from Team USA and not compete at the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain.

The announcement came as a surprise to everyone involved in Team USA and you have to wonder if Paul George’s gruesome ankle injury that resulted in a compound fracture of both the tibia and fibula in his right leg during a Team USA scrimmage last Friday, played a part in Durant’s decision.

“This was an extremely difficult decision as I take great pride in representing our country.” Durant said in a statement on Thursday afternoon. “I know that I owe it to my USA Basketball teammates to be totally invested in the experience. After going through training camp with USAB, I realized I could not fulfill my responsibilities from both a time and energy standpoint. I need to take a step back and take some time away, both mentally and physically in order to prepare for the upcoming NBA season. I will be rooting for USAB and look forward to future opportunities with them."

Team USA coach Mike Kryzewski, and USA Basketball chairman, Jerry Colangelo both said they support Durant’s decision in a statement. Coach K will have a tough time replacing Durant before the FIBA World Cup tips off later this month. The team will be weak at forward as they are already without George, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Love.

It’s possible now that Kevin Love has agreed in principle to be traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers and sign a long term contract that he may rejoin the team and take over Durant’s starting spot at power forward. If Love is still out, look for Atlanta Hawks PF Paul Millsap who was cut earlier this week to return to the team. Coach K will more than likely start Kenneth Faried at power forward now, or he may choose to move New Orleans Pelicans star, Anthony Davis to the forward position and start Sacramento Kings center, DeMarcus Cousins.

Either way you slice it, team USA continues to get more and more bad news as the days tick away, and the rest of the world now believes that team USA is beatable. Teams like Brazil, Argentina and Spain all will have a chance to dethrone team USA as champions of the world later this summer.