Unbelievable; Derrick White has been suspended due to..

LAS VEGAS — Team USA executive director Grant Hill said the decision to send LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard home from training camp and replace him with Boston Celtics guard Derrick White on the roster for the upcoming Paris Olympic Games ultimately rested with Team USA.

“We just felt that we had to pivot, and not to get into the particulars, in terms of what went into the decision, but we just felt it was in our best interest, but also in the Clippers’ and Kawhi’s best interest, to move into a different direction,” Hill said Wednesday evening in a news conference before Team USA’s first exhibition game against Team Canada at T-Mobile Arena. “We tried. I think we all tried and we gave it a valiant effort, and unfortunately, we have to move forward.”

Asked directly whether that meant it was Hill’s, and by extension Team USA’s, decision to send Leonard home, he said, “We did. Ultimately he was sent home, but we were in conversation with the Clippers on that.”

Leonard’s status was up in the air coming into camp after he missed the final three games of the Clippers’ first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks with right knee inflammation. Leonard said over the weekend that he wasn’t able to fully get back onto the court and work out normally until about two weeks before training camp began, at which point he said he finally believed he’d be able to take part in this year’s Olympics.