Team USA likely to keep calling Las Vegas home

By Rob Miech

Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008 | 5:24 p.m.

Odds are that Jerry Colangelo will return to manage the U.S. national basketball team and that Team USA will continue to use Las Vegas as its summer training site.

Colangelo, 68, rebuilt the organization of the squad that won the gold medal this summer in China.

“I haven’t made a final decision, but I’m leaning that way,” Colangelo said Wednesday night from his home in the Phoenix area. “I need to have a few meetings with some people, just to be sure, but I’m definitely leaning that way.”

He will likely decide within the next few weeks. Unlike his last stint with Team USA, which Colangelo did on a volunteer basis, he likely will have a paid position the next time.

That decision will trigger the next phase of the program, determining a headquarters for the American team that will prepare for the 2012 Olympics in London.

Colangelo has always been a fan of Las Vegas, and his influence helped the team call Las Vegas home for the past three summers.

It ran through all foes en route to finishing 10-0 in the FIBA Americas Championship, which earned the U.S. a berth in the Beijing Games at the Thomas & Mack Center two years ago.

The team reunited here this past summer and trounced Canada at the Mack in its last warm-up game on American soil before flying to China.

Team USA stayed at the Wynn on every occasion, and guard Jason Kidd gave his gold medal to Elaine Wynn, wife of Steve Wynn, after the Olympics.

Thursday afternoon, Las Vegas Events president Pat Christensen, who coordinated previous arrangements for the team, said he is optimistic of its return to Las Vegas.

“I think everybody went on record, from USA Basketball to the NBA, to praise Las Vegas for the three-year relationship we had,” he said. “There’s no reason to believe that we won’t, in my mind, be talking to them about doing this again.”

Colangelo was pleased to hear that Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant said Sunday, after a preseason game against Sacramento at the Mack, that he’ll return to Team USA.

“If I’m asked,” he said.

Colangelo laughed.

“Here’s the neat thing about what transpired,” Colangelo said. “Outside of the fact that we had success, so many of the guys want to come back. They personally told me and they’ve publicly stated that.”

That validates all of Colangelo’s efforts, he said, from hiring Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski to coach the team, to securing Las Vegas as its home to picking the right players.

“I’m happy to hear they feel that way,” Colangelo said. “I told them before the whole thing started that this would be one of the great experiences of their lives. I think they feel that way.”

It has been speculated that new New York Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, a former Phoenix assistant who helped Krzyzewski coach Team USA, will coach the next American national team.

Again, Colangelo said, when he decides to return to his managerial role, he will start the process of selecting a coach and making arrangements with Las Vegas.

“We haven’t even started the process, or discussions, on that,” Colangelo said. “First things first. If I make the decision to go forward, then we’ll start that whole process regarding what the plans will be and the expectations.”

Christensen welcomed Colangelo’s probable return as the team’s managing director.

“That’s good for two reasons,” Christensen said. “One, he certainly did put the formula together to get us back to where we were in the past. And he’s a big fan of Las Vegas.”

It might be premature in the process, but it appears that Las Vegas basketball fans will be able to keep calling the city the home base of the world’s best basketball team.

“The preliminary indication is that we would get a serious look,” Christensen said. “Not just because they won the gold, but the fact that the whole combination of the Wynn and facilities and getting players to commit to a destination like Las Vegas for a training camp.

“There’s no other site, really … I don’t feel the urgency to pursue it, because I feel pretty good. When they’re ready to consider sties, I think we’ll be a serious contender.”