Jeff Zillgitt

USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO — LeBron James told USA TODAY Sports it would be a career treat to play for Mike Krzyzewski and Gregg Popovich on the U.S. Olympic team.

In an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, James left the door open for a return to the U.S. basketball team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and in a subsequent interview with USA TODAY Sports, James said, "It would be pretty amazing to be able to actually play for the greatest NBA coach of all time."

Krzyzewski will coach his final game for USA in Sunday’s gold medal game against Serbia, and Popovich, the San Antonio Spurs’ coach, will take over for the next Olympic cycle.

“First off all Coach K and Gregg Popovich are two my favorites of all time," James said. "To be able to play for Coach K in the Olympics and world championships and to be able to go against Coach Pop in the NBA, it would be a treat. Obviously my body has to continue to be in the form that it is today four years from now."

James has made it clear he would love to spend time around Popovich.

Mike Krzyzewski was right Olympic coach at right time for USA Basketball

"I've studied a lot from the outside looking in,” James said of Popovich during All-Star weekend in Toronto in February. "I can't be there on a day-to-day basis. I wish I could. I believe he’s one of the great basketball minds that we’ve ever had in this game, and I wish I could be around him every day to kind of just pick his brain and see what he does, what he thinks. I believe I think the game, I’m not going to say in a similar fashion because he has more experience than me, but I think I have a high basketball IQ, too."

The two have met in the Finals in 2007, 2013 and 2014 with the Spurs winning twice and James once.

There’s mutual admiration, and an Olympics run in four years would give James, who also has a great basketball mind, and Popovich more time to spend with each other.

"He's a great player. He's not just athletic. He's incisive,” Popovich said early in the 2014-15 season. “He understands the game the way Magic (Johnson) did, the way Larry (Bird) did, the way Tim Duncan does. He knows a whole lot more of about what he's doing and what he has been doing than you all. He's a character guy, he's good people, and he's got a great heart."

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