LeBron James will not play for Team USA in Rio Olympics

CLEVELAND, Ohio – LeBron James informed USA Basketball that he would not participate in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August, citing the glut of court time he's logged through six consecutive trips to the Finals.

James' agent Rich Paul informed Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo Thursday of James' decision.

"I could use the rest," James told cleveland.com.

James' decision could signal the end of his prolific Olympic career. He's 31 and has already won two gold medals (in 2012 and 2008) and a bronze (2004) in three Olympics with Team USA, as well as a bronze in the 2006 FIBA World Championships.

He is one of three players to play on three Olympic teams, is among the select few to win an NBA championship and a gold medal in the same year (2012), and steps away as Team USA's all-time leading scorer (273 points) and second-leading rebounder (95 rebounds). He owns one of two triple-doubles in Olympic history.

At 31, James is now a three-time NBA champion, having just led his Cavs to their first title Sunday night. He is the first player since Bill Russell in the 1960s to lead his teams to six consecutive Finals, and no player has played more minutes than James during that stretch.

Over his 13 NBA seasons, James has played 46,861 minutes. Over the past six,  it's 21,664 NBA minutes, with another 330 minutes for Team USA in 2012. Kevin Durant, the next closest, played 18,901 minutes during the same stretch in the NBA.

James' last two Finals have been historic. He was named Finals MVP after leading the Cavs to the biggest playoff comeback over the Warriors in league history, erasing a 3-1 series deficit to beat Golden State in Game 7 on Sunday. He led both teams in points (29.7 points), rebounds (11.3), assists (8.9), blocks (2.3) and steals (2.6) -- the first player to ever do so.

The year before, a six-game loss to the Warriors, James led both teams in scoring (35.8 ppg), rebounds (11.3 rpg) and assists (8.8 apg). No one had previously done that, either.

So, he's been busy.

The thought of James playing in a third Olympics was unfathomable following last season, when he had just missed a career-high 13 games, mostly due to injury. In October, he'd received a second, anti-inflammatory injection in his back in a 10-month span.

But he played injury free in 2015-16, and his respect and admiration for Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who will coach his final Olympics after steering James and Team USA to the last two gold medals, were among the factors that kept James on the fence about making one more Olympic run.

James contacted Krzyzewski Thursday.

A source close to James said a desire to rest his body from the last championship run and prepare for what he hopes is a second one for the Cavs is his sole reason for not playing for Team USA. Items such as the Zika virus, political unrest in Brazil, or the fact that James had already played basketball in Rio -- when the Cavs traveled there in October, 2014 for an exhibition game - were not factors.

Other Team USA roster finalists like Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Paul (a close friend of LeBron James), Kawhi Leonard (according to ESPN) and Damian Lillard (according to The Vertical) have declined to play in Rio.