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DB: You know, the goatee I see youre growing it there…

KB: (smiling) Yeah

DB: …Last season as well, is that an off-season thing you got going now?

KB: You know its a part of getting into my mental element of training you know its kind of like my mountain man look you know, when I have this goatee growing, I’m going pretty intense on the training.

DB: Your next goal after this will be London and winning gold again in 2012. What are you doing currently? I even heard that you were training yesterday, even bringing your staff with you to get ready…the whole team.

KB: Well I mean you just gotta try to stay in shape as much as possible I mean there was such a quick turnaround this year because of the season because of the lockout everything kind of got pushed back so you don’t have kind of the down time that you normally would have. So its important for all of us to stay in shape and report to camp in Vegas in proper form.

Jason Riley: One of the interesting things about the timing of the Olympics is that its pretty quick after the NBA season. So, obviously these are your competitors and then a month later these guys are your teammates so what are those practices like when you get over there and you’re playing with those guys?

KB: They’re spirited [laughs]. You know a lot of it really falls on me because I’m kind of the wiser of the guys having been around so many years so most of the time I set the tone in practice by trash talking certain players whether it be a Lebron, or…

JR: Friendly wagers..?

KB: [laughs]…You know or in Beijing it was D-Wade. Kinda getting practice going because up to that point its always kind of a little uncomfortable when guys don’t know if they can elbow a guy or talk trash to a guy and you know I just come out and just start chirping man [smiling]…

DB & JR: [laughs]

KB: …But it makes practices more fun and everyone starts talking trash back and forth to each other and there’s some pretty funny stuff that’s said most of the time.

Kevin Figgers: You mentioned comfort level and things you can and can’t do on the court with guys that you’re normally competing against during the regular season. There’s a couple of new teammates, a couple of guys are out that you played with in 08, how has it been trying that rebuild that chemistry and camaraderie again with newer teammates than you had in 2008?

KB: Well I mean the process is going to be the same or at least very similar in terms of how you get to know guys outside of the game itself so its kind of building those relationships you know on plane flights and breakfasts’ and dinners and things like that. And then on the court its fairly easy because we’re all intelligent basketball players we’ve played against each other numerous times so you know what they’re strengths and weaknesses are and vice versa so you can adjust pretty quickly.

DB: You took the role in 08 as the defensive stopper and then if they need you towards the close, especially in 08 against Spain, so do you think coach K will do a little of that as well with you this time around?

KB: Yea probably, you know that’s something I really took the challenge of because in the world games in the [United States'] their previous showing on the world stage they really had a lot of issues with bigger guards who would handle the ball and break down their defense and get into the lane and make plays for others so that was something I really enjoyed doing I mean I had a lot of size, speed and quickness so I felt I could kind of plug that hole for the USA team.

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