LAS VEGAS (FIBA Americas Championship) - Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James head the 12-man USA Basketball roster announced on Monday for the FIBA Americas Championship.

Jason Kidd, the playmaker on the 2000 Olympic team, returns to the squad as does 2004 Athens Games bronze medalist Amaré Stoudamire.

The USA will face Venezuela when tournament play opens Wednesday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Seattle forwards Kevin Durant, the second overall pick in the NBA Draft this summer, and Nick Collison did not make the cut.

James and Anthony led the team that was upset by Greece in the semi-finals of the 2006 World Championships in Japan before beating Argentina in the bronze medal game.

Only world champions Spain qualified for the Olympics.

The United States is one of 10 teams competing for two spots in the Beijing Games.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski's team will compete against Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The USA are 26-0 in FIBA Americas qualifying, but if the team should fail to reach the finals, they can still earn a berth for the Olympics in another qualifier next summer.

Dwight Howard, who was on last year's team, is on the squad once again. Rounding out the squad are Chauncey Billups, Tayshawn Prince, Mike Miller, Michael Redd, Deron Williams and Tyson Chandler.

"With Kevin, one year in college and 18 years old, he's made giant progress and he's going to be one of the faces of the NBA and USA Basketball who will be considered next year because 10 months from now he's only going to get better," said Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski.

"Nick wasn't involved from the very beginning so to be this close to making it after being here for about a week shows what a tremendous job he did.

"This was an extremely difficult decision because for both kids you can make a case for either one."

This year's team has an average of 26.16 years compared to last year's, which averaged 24.50 years.

"The experience of the team helps us, there's no question," Krzyzewski said.

"The good teams we play against are not only older individually, they're older collectively. They've grown old together so maybe we can make up for some of that with the selections that we made."

USA squad: Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Kobe Bryant, Tyson Chandler, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Mike Miller, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Amaré Stoudemire, and Deron Williams.

Article courtesy www.fiba.com