Magic forward Paolo Banchero, the reigning Rookie of the Year and the No. 1 overall pick in 2022, has committed to play for Team USA during the FIBA World Cup this summer, league sources tell Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic.
According to The Athletic, Banchero said a year ago that he would play for the Italian national team this summer, but Team USA managing director Grant Hill continued to recruit Banchero throughout the season and evidently convinced him to change his mind. Both Hill and Banchero played for Duke in college.
Banchero was born and raised in the United States, but he has an Italian passport due to his father’s ancestry. As Charania and Vardon write, the 20-year-old originally planned to play for Italy during the 2020 Olympics, but the event was delayed due to the pandemic, and he wound up missing the competition a year later.
After meeting with Banchero in December, Italian Basketball Federation president Gianni Petrucci believed there was a “60% chance” the young forward would suit up for Italy internationally. However, last month he expressed pessimism about the possibility.
Banchero averaged 20.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists per game in 72 starts this past season. He’s the 11th player to commit to Team USA’s 12-man roster, per The Athletic.
The Americans will start training camp for the World Cup in early August, with their first game scheduled later that month in the Philippines.
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