The Paris Olympics village is expected to house over 14,000 athletes. However, the US basketball team, both male and female, are not among those athletes staying in the village. The team opted to make its own arrangements, following the tradition that has been set since 1992, when the NBA team participated in the Barcelona Olympics.
According to Forbes, USA Basketball’s national governing body has always housed its players in luxurious hotels outside the Olympic ecosystem. It did so at the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021, Athens in 2004, and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
For the Paris games, they rented out the entire hotel in the city center with roughly 800 rooms. However, it remains uncertain whether USA Basketball will utilize all the rooms. For instance, at the Tokyo Games, the golfers stayed at the basketball team’s hotel.
RELATED STORIES
“The expenses don’t stop with lodging, which also reportedly includes a five-star hotel in Lille for three group stage games. Transporting players to practices and games and shipping team equipment to Paris need to be sorted. The USOPC contributes in certain areas, like providing access to a high-performance training center it built out in Paris and coach-class airfare for athletes. But upgrades, like flying via charter, fall on USA Basketball,” according to Forbes.
According to Forbes estimates, it cost $15 million to send the American basketball squads to the Olympics, an astronomical figure compared with other sports. Meanwhile, USA Fencing spent between $300,000 and $400,000 to send 20 fencers to the Paris Olympics.
The USA basketball team has security as its major concern, according to Forbes, citing the 2008 Beijing Games, where thousands of fans routinely line up outside Team USA’s hotel to catch a glimpse of Kobe Bryant.
“It’s a little bit overwhelming and a bit embarrassing to be honest with you,” Bryant told reporters 16 years ago. “I’m just trying to blend in and, you know, duck my head down because I just want to be part of the mix.”
The current men NBA team in the United States has some of the highest-earning athletes in its ranks. According to Forbes, these players earn large playing contracts or prize money winnings, as well as millions of dollars in brand endorsements and off-field business ventures.
The US team include LeBron James of the LA Lakers, Stephen Curry, who plays for the Warriors, Kevin Durant, Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid, and Anthony Davis, who plays for the LA Lakers as a forward.
The State Department complements the NBA’s security efforts. “It’s very much undercover,” the former director says. “It’s eyes and ears and coordinating with the locals just to make sure that everything’s fine.” The State Department covers its own expenses, and in some cases, the USOPC will supplement the effort with a local security agency.
