DeMar DeRozan Named to USA Basketball 2016 Summer Olympics Roster

DeMar DeRozan was named to USA basketball’s 2016 Summer Olympics roster, making him the first player to represent USC basketball at the Olympics ever.

USC athletics have a long and storied history of success at the Olympics. Thanks to DeMar DeRozan, USC basketball now gets a share of that Olympic feeling.

The Raptors guard was officially named to the USA 2016 Summer Olympics team Monday after an All-Star season in Toronto.

DeRozan joined the Trojans in 2008 as a five-star recruit and the heir apparent to O.J. Mayo, who had departed the previous year. He lived up to the hype by leading the team in scoring as a freshman and being named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team.

With DeRozan leading the way, USC won the Pac-12 Tournament and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament. After the No. 10 seed Trojans beat No. 7 seed Boston College, they fell in the second round to No. 2 seed Michigan State.

Following that successful season, DeRozan declared for the pros and became the second-highest pick out of USC ever when he was selected No. 9 overall in the 2009 NBA Draft.

In Toronto, DeRozan has established himself as one of the top players in the Eastern Conference. He helped the Raptors reach the Eastern Conference Finals this year, taking the Cleveland Cavaliers to six games before falling.

DeRozan won gold with Team USA at the FIBA World Cup in 2014 but this is his first appearance on the Olympic team.

Given USC’s lack of general success in the realm of basketball in modern history, it’s no surprise that DeRozan is the first Trojan to make an Olympic squad ever.

However, the Trojans were a premiere basketball program under Sam Barry in the 1930s and 40s, before the arrival of UCLA’s John Wooden at UCLA and almost had a representative on the first Olympic basketball team in 1936.

In fact, in some corners of the internet Duane Swanson, who played for Team USA in that first basketball competition on a world level, is referenced as a USC basketball player.

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Officially, that’s not exactly true as Swanson never lettered for USC.

Interestingly enough, Swanson, who was a star freshman at Iowa in 1934, hitchhiked his way to Los Angeles in an attempt to play for Sam Barry at USC. Unfortunately, amid accusations of tampering, he was denied admission, according to Daily Trojan archives.

Barry ultimately did coach Swanson on USC’s Alumni All-Star team but, since he never saw the court for the Trojans in an official university capacity, his place in USC basketball history is an odd one.

What’s not in question is that DeRozan has proven himself as one of the most successful USC basketball alums ever and now has a chance to add to the Trojans’ tally of gold medals, which stands at 135.