NBA Stars missing FIBA World Cup: Victor Wembayana, Nikola Jokic, LeBron James

The confetti is still be cleaned off the floor, and the cigars are still embered in Denver after their first NBA Title celebration that took place two weeks ago. The season just ended, but there is some summer basketball that many players will be getting prepped for, but a lot of the big names are dropping out of the Fiba World Cup which tips off in late August.

Finals MVP

It should really come as no surprise that the reigning Finals MVP Nikola Jokic will not be participating for his native country of Serbia in the upcoming World Cup. The Nuggets center played a whole lot of basketball in the run to the NBA Finals, and looked ready for a break from basketball after the decisive win over the Miami Heat in Game 5. Reports coming out of Serbia last week suggest that Jokic is going to sit out the World Cup.

2023 1st overall pick

The most recent player to declare himself out of the World Cup may not be a star just yet, but he is certainly being treated like one already. Victor Wembanyama was drafted first overall in last weeks NBA Draft, and instead of risking injury before the season even starts he has withdrawn his name from the French team. Wemby will perhaps play a bit in Summer League, but he will be much more focused on being at 100% for the start of next season in October, which the San Antonio Spurs will be more than happy with.

The MVP

Joel Embiid is looking more and more likely to miss this year’s World Cup after crashing out of the NBA Playoffs earlier than expected. He has still to decide if he will be playing for France or for USA in the upcoming Olympics in Paris, so until he does that it is unlikely that we see the MVP of the NBA playing at the World Cup this summer.

Greek Freak

Giannis Antetokounmpo has yet to declare his intentions to play with the Greek National team this summer. The Milwaukee Bucks were bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the eighth seeded Miami Heat, and the Greek Freak suffered an injury that bothered him all through the series. Even if he has recovered from that back injury, it is still up in the air if he will join the team in Asia in late August.

Doncic in

The good news for FIBA and the Slovenian national team is Luka Doncic looks all in to represent his country in this year’s World Cup. The Mavs superstar makes a point of playing with his country, and while Dallas might be a bit worried about him taking part in the competition, it could be a way of keeping their highly prized face of the franchise in shape before next season.

Team USA

On this side of the pond, we aren’t used to seeing the top names in the game sign up for the World Cup. Not as many as we see for the Olympics at least, which means that the biggest stars in the US will be be sitting out at least this summer. Here is a look at the current roster for US Basketball, who are two slots away from completing their roster.

You’ll notice there is no LeBron James, no Steph Curry, no Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis or Devin Booker. Despite these players skipping the tournament, but even still, the Steve Kerr led squad have a very good chance of winning gold.