MIAMI (AP) 鈥� Mike James has waited a long time to wear 鈥淯SA鈥� across his chest.
The opportunity will finally come this weekend, when James 鈥� who has played internationally as a pro for more than a decade and has 48 games of NBA experience with three teams 鈥� will join the U.S. for a pair of World Cup qualifying games.
As an added bonus, he gets to do it over a weekend when the U.S. celebrates its 250th birthday.
鈥淧laying these games over the Fourth of July and all that, I really didn鈥檛 think about it until now,” James said. “Now that you say it, it is kind of important.鈥�
The Americans will play at the Dominican Republic on Friday, then will go to play Mexico on Monday. This is the third two-game window of first-round qualifying for the U.S., which is among 16 teams trying to earn one of seven berths that will be allocated to countries from the FIBA Americas region in the 2027 World Cup in Qatar.
Worldwide, 80 teams are competing for spots in the 32-team field. A number of big-name NBA players are competing in qualifiers this week, such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Canada, Nikola Jokic for Serbia, Rudy Gobert for France and Lauri Markkanen for Finland.
鈥淭here is a standard that is USA Basketball and that’s because of all the people before us who have made USA Basketball into what it is,” said Stephen Silas, who will coach the Americans in this qualifying window. 鈥淲e’re going to get everybody鈥檚 best. And to do it at this time, around the 250th, it鈥檚 a big deal.鈥�
The Americans have already clinched a spot in the second round of qualifying, which will open later this year. But these games over the holiday weekend count toward those standings, and two wins now will go a long way toward locking up a World Cup berth.
James has played for some top-tier international clubs, including Greece鈥檚 Panathinaikos, Milano and Monaco. And when a friend of his, Andrew Andrews, got an invitation to be part of USA Basketball鈥檚 AmeriCup team last year, James wondered why he never got a call from his country.
鈥淚 guess he kind of mentioned it to somebody and it seems like they didn’t know I would be interested in playing for USA Basketball,” James said. 鈥淥nce they kind of got the word that I would play, they got my information, reached out and that was it. It’s just a good time, for them and for me to be here.鈥�
James hasn’t seen what a World Cup qualifier is like yet. But he’s seen probably more international play than his teammates combined, which means he knows what’s coming this weekend.
鈥淚t’s huge. He鈥檚 been through it all, huge games, and that鈥檚 one of the reasons we wanted him here,鈥� Silas said. “We’re just happy to have him. He has that confidence that you can feel and he鈥檚 not a loud guy by any stretch of the imagination 鈥� but you can sense the confidence that comes off him.鈥�
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