Paul George details how he thought he was going to be on Team USA

There's been no shortage of attention on Team USA men's basketball at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Following Wednesday's victory over South Sudan, the team moved to 2-0 in group play, and the buzz surrounding the team and expectation of a gold medal is as strong as ever.

The Americans boast a roster so loaded with talent that the likes of Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Haliburton have all picked up DNP-CDs for one of the team's first two games. While filling out a star-studded roster like the one Team USA brought to Paris resulted in a few easy decisions, such as Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Stephen Curry, deciding which players to leave off seems daunting.

One player who believed he was slated to be on the roster this summer was Paul George, who admitted as much during an interview on " 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony & Kid Mero ." George said Team USA and Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr asked him about joining during the 2023-24 NBA season and that he thought he was "a part of that group."

Anthony asked George why he wasn't on Team USA this year, and the Philadelphia 76ers star laid out the situation.

"Yeah, they came to me, right? Steve Kerr, after we played the Warriors in LA, came to me like, ‘You got any interest in being on Team USA?’ Yeah, I want to play," George said. "So I’m thinking I’m in. I think I’m a part of that group."

"I’m seeing it on the ground: they get the jersey, they get the jersey. I’m like, ‘Where’s my post? When are they going to hit me?’ It just so happened I ran into Grant Hill, I think during the playoffs in Dallas," George explained. "‘Yeah, man, didn’t happen this year.’ So I understood it. Obviously, I ain’t going to be sour about it, but at the same time, it was like, damn, I was looking forward to representing the USA and being a part of that team.”

George was a member of the 2016 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He averaged 11.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.5 steals per game over 19.0 minutes while starting in two of the team's eight games.