12 players that USA Basketball took to Nicaragua this week<\/a>\u00a0for the start of qualifying for the 2027 World Cup. The team\u2019s first game is in Managua, and it\u2019s the start of six two-game windows that will be held between now and March 2027.<\/p>\nAs it does for most qualifying windows, USA Basketball put together a team that almost certainly will be together for only these two games; after Friday, the Americans return home and will play Nicaragua again at College Park, Georgia, on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have love for the game,\u201d Knight said. \u201cEven if I wasn\u2019t playing and striving, I\u2019d be working out every day anyways. And, honestly, it\u2019s about my kids. At the peak of my career, my son was not even here yet. My daughter wasn\u2019t here yet. So, I want them to still be able to see Daddy moving around, being active. My goal is to hopefully at one point return to the NBA and if they could see that, man, that would be it for me. I\u2019ll keep striving whether I end up there or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knight, Torrey Craig, Kessler Edwards, MarJon Beauchamp, Kyle Guy, Nate Hinton and Javonte Smart \u2014 all with NBA regular-season experience \u2014 will be part of the team, as will Pedro Bradshaw, Garrison Brooks, Jaden Shackelford, Jeremiah Tilmon and Ryan Woolridge. Stephen Silas is coaching the team, which held a training camp at the University of Miami before heading to Nicaragua.<\/p>\n
Knight has the most experience at the NBA level with 451 appearances. And USA Basketball men\u2019s national team director Sean Ford \u2014 who puts together these teams \u2014 said Knight didn\u2019t need much convincing to take this two-game deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I called him, you could almost see the smile through the phone,\u201d Ford said. \u201cHe\u2019s such a good guy and he\u2019s always smiling. And when I was explaining this to him, he was like, \u2018Yeah, I could do that.\u2019 Everyone here said yes right away. Maybe they didn\u2019t know 100% of what they\u2019re getting into, but they\u2019re looking to advance their careers. Hopefully they can do that here and hopefully they can also just have a good basketball experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knight last played in the NBA more than 3 1\/2 years ago, appearing with the Dallas Mavericks. He never has played in an NBA playoff game; there were three seasons in which he played for a team that reached the postseason, but two of those teams traded him away in-season and his 10-day contract with Dallas expired before the Mavs\u2019 2022 playoff run.<\/p>\n
He currently is playing in Puerto Rico, so he\u2019s familiar with the differences in the game internationally \u2014 which will help in the environment that the Americans expect to see in Managua. (“It’s going to be crazy and I can’t wait,” Knight said.) But another lure for Knight was camp in Miami, his hometown and the area where he was generally considered the best high school player in the country as a junior and senior before he enrolled at Kentucky.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s home. Born and raised here,\u201d Knight said. \u201cIt feels awesome to have a NBA-type setting and then be able to go home. It\u2019s nothing like anything I\u2019ve been able to experience since I became a pro in 2011. It\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knight is also well aware of the stakes. For qualifying games, USA Basketball generally puts together teams of G League players and others who are playing abroad. For the World Cup and the Olympics, the rosters get filled by big-name NBA players. And in the qualifying rounds, the only times the Americans generally get attention is if they lose \u2014 which sometimes happens in these games.<\/p>\n
Knight wants that challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be selfless,\u201d Knight said. \u201cBeing a father now of two, that\u2019s what life is about, being selfless. I\u2019m a big believer in that you reap what you sow. And if the only time that this team will be recognized is if we lose, that\u2019s life. It\u2019s an honor to have that challenge. It\u2019s an honor to play for the USA. It\u2019s an honor to have a target on your back and to be chosen for this. And it\u2019s always good to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Brandon Knight still holds out hope of returning to the NBA. He\u2019s hoping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-318442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}