LAS VEGAS -- Indiana Pacers forward Paul George has been excused from the rest of this week's USA Basketball minicamp after spending Monday with the team, according to USAB sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that George attended both a team meeting Monday night as well as a one-on-one sitdown with Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski, thus satisfying a mandate from USAB managing director Jerry Colangelo that any player who wants to be considered for the 2016 Olympic team must show himself in Vegas.
But sources say George -- who was always expected by USAB officials to sit out this week's two light workouts as well as Thursday night's intrasquad scrimmage -- was spared the chore of being forced to watch Tuesday's noncontact session from the sideline and then face the media hordes in attendance.
This camp, of course, comes just over a year removed from the gruesome double fracture George suffered in his right leg in a nasty fall late in last year's intrasquad scrimmage at the Thomas and Mack Center on Aug. 1.
George ultimately managed to make it back to play in only six regular-season games for Indiana before shutting it down for the season with a calf injury. The Pacers and George, as a result, are understandably proceeding with caution this offseason as the 25-year-old continues to rebound from the injury.
Given the lingering debate about the NBA's top stars exposing themselves to potential serious injury while on international duty in the wake of the George situation, as well as the ACL tear suffered by Utah's Dante Exum while playing for Australia, Colangelo took heart from the sight of Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant and New York's Carmelo Anthony choosing the USAB stage for their own formal returns to the court.
"It's exciting to see the look in their eyes," Colangelo said. "In terms of Kevin Durant, he looks like he's ready to play. That's exciting. That wasn't the case a year ago, when we went through the [George] fiasco."
Colangelo, though, went on to reiterate his stance that USAB's decision to institute a noncontact schedule "really isn't any byproduct at all" of what happened to George here last summer.
"It's more that we don't have any [official tournament] competition to prepare for this summer," said Colangelo, who sees this camp as "a recommitment going forward" of those who want to be considered for one of the 12 roster spots on the squad bound for Rio de Janeiro in August 2016.
Of the 34 players listed on USAB's roster this week, only three were not in attendance for Tuesday's practice: LeBron James, George and Dallas Mavericks swingman Chandler Parsons, who is recovering from recent knee surgery. But both James and Parsons are expected to be with the team Wednesday to ensure they are considered for the Summer Games in Brazil.
Krzyzewski, meanwhile, told ESPN.com on Tuesday that recent NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala remains firmly under consideration for a spot on the Rio squad after helping Team USA to gold medals at both the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey and the 2012 Summer Games in London.
Iguodala recently got married and was prepared to postpone his honeymoon to come to this week's USAB events, but Krzyzewski told him to stick with that schedule. Iguodala would have given the newly-crowned champion Golden State Warriors a league-high five USA Basketball participants this week had he joined Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes.
"He's been a prince for us," Krzyzewski said of Iguodala.
Curry is one of six players on the 34-man roster who -- either because of injury rehab or simply in the wake of a long season -- was not assigned a number by USA Basketball this week in anticipation that the NBA's reigning MVP would not participate in either scheduled practice. The others on that list are James, Parsons, Washington's John Wall and the rehabbing Cleveland duo of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.
Curry (No. 49) and Wall (No. 56) ultimately wound up grabbing jerseys and slipping them on during Tuesday's session, but both mostly watched from the sideline along with Irving and Love, who are recovering from respective knee and shoulder surgeries.