The US men’s basketball team that travels to the Paris Olympics later this month will have an unmistakably green hue.
An NBA source confirmed Wednesday that Celtics guard Derrick White will replace Clippers guard Kawhi Leonard, who withdrew from the team prior to Wednesday night’s exhibition game against Canada in Las Vegas.
The Celtics will now have three of the 12 players on the team, with White joining Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday. Celtics guard Payton Pritchard played for the USA Select team that scrimmaged against the national team in Las Vegas this week.
White, the only member of the squad who has never been an NBA All-Star, played for the national team that finished seventh in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, where he was teammates with Celtics Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and Kemba Walker.
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White was also a finalist for the Tokyo Olympics, and he was part of the player pool for the Paris Olympics. This past season, White was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive second team for the second year in a row, and he averaged 15.2 points, 5.2 assists, and 4.2 rebounds, helping the Celtics to their first NBA title since 2008.
Leonard dealt with knee troubles throughout this past season and the issue sidelined him for four of the six games in his team’s first-round playoff loss to the Mavericks. Leonard took part in practices at training camp this week and said he had been ramping up without issue for the past few weeks, but he and the Clippers ultimately decided to err on the side of caution.
“Kawhi has been ramping up for the Olympics over the past several weeks and had a few strong practices in Las Vegas,” USA Basketball said in a statement. “He felt ready to compete. However, he respects that USA Basketball and the Clippers determined it’s in his best interest to spend the remainder of the summer preparing for the upcoming season rather than participating in the Olympic Games in Paris.”
Forward Kevin Durant is sidelined with calf soreness and will miss Wednesday night’s exhibition, but he said he hopes to return soon. The US national team will face Australia and Serbia in exhibitions in Abu Dhabi next week before traveling to London for exhibitions against South Sudan and Germany.
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The US will face Serbia in its Olympic pool-play opener July 28.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.