Kevin Love withdraws from U.S. men's Olympic basketball team
16 July 2021
NBA star Kevin Love has withdrawn from the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team, saying he's not at his "absolute peak performance" following a calf injury, ESPN reported Friday.
Why it matters: It's the latest blow to USA Basketball, which announced Thursday that Bradley Beal will miss the Tokyo Games after being placed under coronavirus health and safety protocols.
- Jerami Grant has also been put under the COVID protocols "out of an abundance of caution," but has not tested positive for the virus.
- USA Basketball announced its exhibition game with Australia scheduled for Friday has been canceled.
What he's saying: "I am incredibly disappointed to not be heading to Tokyo with Team USA, but you need to be at absolute peak performance to compete at the Olympic level and I am just not there yet," Love, a forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers, shared in a statement to ESPN.
- His right calf injury kept him out of 46 games during this NBA season, ESPN.
Flashback: Love was on the gold-medal winning team at the 2012 London Games.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.