2012 Olympians Off To A Fast Start In NBA Season

Colorado Springs, Colorado • Nov. 26, 2012

It's early in the NBA season, but members of the gold medalist 2012 U.S Olympic team are continuing their golden run and are off to exciting starts to their 2012-13 NBA seasons.

Of a possible 143 games played by their teams to date (11/25/12), the 12 U.S. Olympians have played in 128 games. Ten USA team members have played in every game to date; only Kevin Love (broken hand in pre-season) and rookie Anthony Davis (concussion and ankle injury) have missed games due to injuries suffered with their NBA teams. In the shorten 2011-12 NBA season, the 11 USA players missed 63 total games.

Currently U.S. gold medalists occupy the top six positions in the NBA scoring statistics. Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, James Harden, LeBron James and Kevin Love, respectively, rank first through sixth in points scored and are currently averaging between 26.9 - 24.3 points a game. Russell Westbrook, who ranks eighth, is the seventh USA player to rank in the top 10 for scoring.

A quick review shows eight of 11 players (excluding Davis who is a rookie) averaging more points in 2012-13 than they average for their careers, while nine of the 11 are scoring more or within two points of what they averaged in 2011-12. Six are shooting better from the field and six are averaging more minutes than their career average. Overall, the 12 USA players are averaging 35.12 minutes per game while their career average in total is 34.23.

The successful continuation has also carried over to the USA coaching staff. 2012 U.S. Olympic head coach Mike Krzyzewski has his Duke Blue Devils off to a 6-0 start and No. 2 national ranking. U.S. assistant coach Jim Boeheim has led the Syracuse Orange to a 4-0 start and No. 5 ranking, while USA assistant mentor Mike D’Antoni was recently hired as head coach of the NBA Los Angeles Lakers.

Below is a comparison of NBA statistics for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team members.