MIAMI — No U.S. men's basketball player ever has appeared in four Olympics or won three gold medals. Cross Dwyane Wade off as a candidate to do either.
The Miami Heat guard, who won a bronze medal in Athens in 2004 and gold in Beijing in 2008, said Sunday night that 2012 in London will mark his final Olympics.
"This is my last run," Wade, 29, said in an interview with FOX Sports Florida. "No chance (Wade will return for another Olympics). No chance at all. Not a chance."
Wade initially had believed he was through after 2008.
"I thought I was done after the last one," Wade said. "There are so many great young players in this league, and you want to give everybody an opportunity to be able to play on that stage. And I've been able to play on that stage two times already. I got a chance to win my gold medal so I thought, ‘This is a great way to end it."'
So what convinced Wade to come back for one more Olympics?
"All the guys kind of were like, ‘You're playing,"' Wade said of some of his Olympic teammates working him over last year, namely Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and LeBron James. "Melo, CP, Bron, they wouldn't let me think about not playing. So everybody kind of convinced me, ‘We're going to do it again together.' And I told them if they're back in, I'm in."
USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said last week that between 18-20 finalists for the final Olympic 12-man roster will be named in late January. Wade is considered a shoo-in to eventually make it to London.
David Robinson is the only U.S. player to have appeared in three Olympics, taking bronze in 1988 and golds in 1992 and 1996. Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, John Stockton and Jason Kidd are the only other players to have won two gold medals.
With Wade out of the mix for 2016, that would leave three other players with a chance to play in a fourth straight Olympics — James, Anthony and Carlos Boozer. However, Boozer is not considered to even have a good chance to make the 2012 team.
"The bulk of our (2008) team is coming back," said Wade, who is not concerned the NBA Finals could end as late as June 26, barely a month before the Olympics start July 27. "It's special to have that unity to do what we did. So that's the only reason why I really want to do it again."
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson
