LAS VEGAS — Kevin Durant’s expected return to the court for Team USA will do more than turn the already Olympic gold favorites into an even more formidable threat.

It will offer one Olympic rookie, Anthony Edwards, the same opportunity Durant (and Anthony Davis) had 12 years ago in London. The chance to be teammates with his idol.

“I can’t wait to play alongside him,” Edwards said of Durant, whom Edwards has on multiple occasions referred to as “my favorite player.”

“I definitely still got butterflies there waiting for that to happen,” Edwards said.

In the summer of 2012, Durant was 23 years old, already a past NBA Rookie of the Year, a five-year vet and three-time All-Star who had just competed in his first finals. So he was a little further ahead in his career for his first Olympics, when he got his first chance to play with Kobe Bryant, than Edwards is now for his first Games and chance to wear the same shirt as Durant.

Davis, on the other hand, was 19 and an incoming NBA rookie when he was added to Team USA for the London Games. So you would say he was younger and less experienced than Edwards is now, and far less so than Durant was in 2012, when Davis teamed with his idol Bryant on USA Basketball.

Both Durant and Davis look back on that summer with Bryant as a defining period of their lives, something they reflect on and remember constantly, especially since they’re wearing Red, White, and Blue again and Bryant is not able to cheer them on from the sidelines. He died tragically in a helicopter crash in 2020.

If Bryant were still alive, he almost surely would have been in Las Vegas this week for USA Basketball’s 50th anniversary celebration. The party itself was Tuesday night; it featured former President Barack Obama as a speaker, and was attended by many of the great players and coaches who have made USA Basketball the most dominant international team program (men and women) on Earth.

Playing for USAB not only offers an abundance of access to Olympic gold medals, on-court development, and even the creation of NBA super teams (hi, Heatles), but also the opportunity to be young and play on the same team with legends, and to build relationships that transcend basketball.

“I can’t wait to play alongside him,” Anthony Edwards, who will turn 23 at the Olympics, says of Kevin Durant. Edwards counts Durant as his favorite player. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

To Edwards, who grew up in Atlanta and watched Durant with the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Hawks in the first NBA game Edwards ever attended, the Paris Olympics represent that chance for him. Durant has yet to play or participate in any team drill or scrimmage due to a left calf strain, but Edwards is at least at the team hotel, on the bus, and in the gym with the player he looked up to as a child.

And so far, Edwards’ stories sound like the experiences Durant and Davis relate about the London Olympics with Bryant.

“He’s just the type of guy — he walks in the gym and even though he’s not practicing, he goes straight to a basketball and shoots before he even thinks about doing anything else,” Edwards said of Durant. “That’s how I am. So I mean, I can’t wait to play alongside him.”

Durant said Edwards, who will turn 23 during the Olympics and is a two-time All-Star, is “like a sponge … but also wise beyond his years.” Durant also can’t wait to join Edwards on the court; USA managing director Grant Hill said Wednesday that Durant could return to practice this week in Abu Dhabi.

Davis’ close friend and teammate, LeBron James, was also on the 2012 Olympic team — but of any bond Davis formed with players from that iteration of Team USA, he said the closest was with Bryant.

“We had a team dinner and, coming fresh out of college, I mean, I got drafted, but I didn’t play a game or anything, checks wasn’t really coming yet, you know?” Davis recounted. “And so in college, I wore sweats. And, you know, we had a team dinner (for Team USA) and I came in a full sweatsuit. And everybody was like, dressed to the nines, like looking real nice. And I walked in. I’m like, ‘Oh, (expletive). That’s when they all got on me like, ‘Yo, don’t ever do this again.’ Especially Kobe. Like he really got on me. I think that’s where our bond (began), first connecting, we got really close.”

In 2012, a 23-year-old Kevin Durant got the chance to play Olympic basketball with his idol, Kobe Bryant. Now it’s Durant doing the mentoring. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

In 2012, Bryant had already won each of the five NBA titles he’d win and been voted to 14 of his 18 All-Star Games. He, along with James, had led the Redeem Team in 2008. Durant admired him because, with all the fame and notoriety that came with being Kobe Bean Bryant, he tried to carry himself around teammates like a regular guy.

“He moved by himself a lot, like, he wasn’t this big … he didn’t come with a big entourage, he didn’t come with a lot of glitz and glamor,” Durant said. “People may have looked at him that way, but he was just a normal dude. But he has so much confidence in his skill and who he was as a player.”

Durant said his glimpse of Bryant was of the “different phases” of Bryant’s life and career “all put together.” He tried to emulate Bryant the entire time they were together — and for years afterward.

In death, Bryant has been eulogized time and again by the NBA greats who have come after him, each with his own story or tribute to the impact Bryant had on them. For instance, Jayson Tatum, who is on Team USA this year, wears No. 10 in Bryant’s honor when he’s playing for the national team (he also wore it for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021).

So long as Durant’s calf holds up, this is Edwards’ summer to spend with his idol.

“I’m ready to see Olympics KD,” Edwards said.

It’s more than just “seeing” Durant, Team USA’s all-time leading scorer. It’s passing to him, shooting from his pass, picking up his man on a switch, and otherwise soaking up all the things that have made Durant one of the greatest to ever play.

And maybe, just maybe, biting into a gold medal together.