McGrady Won’t Play for U.S. Olympic Team

Tracy McGrady will not play for the U.S. basketball team at the Olympics, U.S. Coach Larry Brown said Wednesday.

“Tracy dropped out,” Brown said, breaking the news of yet another superstar’s withdrawal from the roster.

McGrady joins Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, Kevin Garnett, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Elton Brand and Kenyon Martin among players who have withdrawn from the team or have told the selection committee they would not accept invitations.

Brown indicated that McGrady’s decision to get married influenced the player’s decision. A call to McGrady’s agent was not immediately returned.

Brown also declined to answer directly when asked whether he thought Jermaine O’Neal might be wavering. O’Neal didn’t comment Wednesday on his Olympic team status, saying he is thinking only about the NBA playoffs right now.

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Commissioner David Stern wants the NBA to send some of its players to the minor league.

Stern proposed expanding the National Basketball Development League from its current six- or seven-team structure to 15 franchises, allowing each NBA team to farm out one young player on its roster.

“If a team has a player below a certain age that it thinks would benefit from playing a lot, assigning the contract of that player to an affiliated team would be a good idea because we have young men playing four minutes instead of 40,” Stern said.

Speaking at an impromptu news conference before the NBA Draft Lottery, Stern noted the idea would need the approval of the NBA Players Assn.