As if coming back to play for Team USA wasn’t enough, LeBron James is now named as the male flagbearer for Team USA in the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The Los Angeles Lakers star brings his talents on the big stage possibly for one last time as he seeks to help Team USA regain its basketball dominance.

James becomes the first men’s player selected as a flagbearer since Dawn Staley did the same back in the 2004 Athens Games and Sue Bird in the 2021 Tokyo Games. James is slated to join his fellow American athletes this Friday as it rows through the River Seine, which is the path site of the Opening Ceremony.

At the age of 39, James adds more to his honor-laden career with this role in the Olympic opener. The two-time Olympic gold medalist is slated to appear in his fourth Summer Olympics, and he hopes to come up with a much more promising groove to wrap up this campaign with Team USA now more than ever.

An Utmost Honor For James

Just a kid from Akron, Ohio, James takes on this monumental privilege to represent the United States, possibly for the last time in his legendary basketball career. James said that this is a special feeling to be able to represent his country in another way than basketball, and he claims that this utmost honor will definitely live on forever.

James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, is slated to make his fourth appearance in the Olympics, a tournament that he played first back in 2004 at the age of 19. Now 20 years later, he returns to the same stage with the hopes of securing one last massive campaign for Team USA now more than ever.

The decision to make James the flagbearer for Team USA was announced just a few hours before the team was slated to play its final pre-Olympics exhibition game against World Cup champion Germany, where James carried the squad to a thrilling win in the final four minutes of the game.

Thousands of athletes will be joining on the opening ceremony, which involves a flotilla sailing through the Seine at sunset all the way to the Eiffel Tower – a travel of 3.7 miles ahead of the tournament. Team USA comes second to the last to ride down the river, which is a position given to the next host of the Summer Games.

Team USA’s Chances

James returned to Team USA in the Olympic stage with the hopes of helping the squad secure its spot in the global stage. Set to turn 40 this December, James is seeking to bring in his third gold medal in the game, and he is showing a lot of incredible performances in the game with massive strides so far.

We have seen him take over for Team USA in some of their exhibition games. One was seen in their comeback victory against South Sudan where he nailed the game-winning layup, and his scoring barrage against Germany in the final four minutes proved to be a show of his potential as a promising player for the United States even at the age of 39.

Team USA will open its campaign in the Olympics with a clash against Nikola Jokic and Serbia this Sunday at Lille, France. For those who didn’t know, the United States are coming in to defend their dominant run in the Olympics, which stands at four years in a row in winning gold.