Report: Evan Mobley passed on opportunity to play on USA Select Team last year

Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley was supposedly offered a chance to play for USA’s Select Team last year but turned down the opportunity, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.

Not a single player on the Cavaliers is a member of Team USA.

Mobley was limited to just 50 games during the 2023-24 regular season, his third season in the pros, and averaged 15.7 points on 58.0 percent shooting from the field and 37.3 percent from 3-point range along with 9.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.4 blocks per game.

He averaged the fourth-most points, second-most rebounds and most blocks per game on a Cavaliers team that won 48 of its 82 regular-season games and ended up as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.

After sitting out much of the regular season, Mobley appeared in all 12 of the Cavaliers’ games during the 2024 NBA Playoffs. He also started every one of those contests and averaged 16.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.2 blocks per contest.

Mobley helped lead the Cavaliers to their first playoff series victory of the decade, considering Cleveland eliminated the Orlando Magic in seven games in the first round. The last time Cleveland won a playoff series prior to eliminating Orlando came in 2018, when one of the best players in NBA history in LeBron James was still suiting up for the team.

The 23-year-old was also arguably Cleveland’s best player in the team’s second-round series against Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics. The Cavaliers lost to the Celtics in a gentleman’s sweep, but the former University of Southern California star averaged 21.4 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game against Boston, who went on to win the 2024 title after defeating the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals.

It’s unfortunate that the Cavaliers don’t have any players who will represent the country at the Olympics. Still, considering how much Mobley has already grown as a player and the fact that he is just 23 years old, it’s within the realm of possibility that he will play for Team USA at some point during his pro career.