So much hype is surrounding Bulls rookie forward Caleb Wilson, and for good reason. Wilson is the optimal configuration of personality, positional size, and highlight-generating talent to quickly vault to the face of the Bulls franchise and perhaps even the face of the NBA if everything in his development breaks the right way.
Obviously, Wilson needs to keep the main thing, the main thing and work his way through a successful rookie Bulls season that should put him in the running for NBA Rookie of the Year. However, beyond his rookie season, there should be substantial development goals to guide Wilson’s NBA career progress.
A goal that would do wonders for his career, and is likely a critical need to be filled, lies in USA Basketball and evolving the core of the USA men’s national basketball team for Olympic competition.
The stalwarts of USA Basketball for the last 15 years - LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant are unlikely to be on the Olympic basketball court representing the US in the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, or at best, they’re on the roster at diminished basketball strength.
At the same time, it seems nearly inevitable that France will become the undisputed international basketball superpower with the rise of San Antonio Spurs superstar wing Victor Wembanyama, who should make his second tour of Olympic basketball duty for his native France in the 2028 Los Angeles games.
The opportunity ahead for Caleb Wilson is to prove himself to be a capable star addition to USA Basketball’s men’s national roster for the foreseeable future of Olympic basketball competition. Perhaps 2028 might be a bit of an aggressive timeline to see Wilson suit up in red, white, and blue to compete for a gold medal, yet the goal should be obvious to Wilson. Make the USA men’s national basketball team roster sooner rather than later.
The NBA benefit of USA Basketball
Zach LaVine is famously the last Chicago Bulls player to participate in the Olympics on a USA Basketball roster.
LaVine’s contribution to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics USA men’s national team was sandwiched between his two consecutive NBA All-Star seasons and was lauded by USA Basketball’s head coach Gregg Popovich and assistant coach (and Bulls legend) Steve Kerr for accepting the challenge of being a consistent defender in the Tokyo games.
We don’t yet know exactly what Caleb Wilson’s NBA development areas will be, but Wilson gaining the opportunity to play FIBA-rules basketball and learn from the collection of player and coaching talent USA Basketball assembles for Olympic competition is why he needs to have this opportunity as a top development goal for his early NBA career.
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