James Harden of Team USA Against Dominican Republic
James Harden shot 4-of-8 from the field to score 12 points and also had 4 assists Reuters

Derrick Rose, Stephen Curry and James Harden are among the dozen NBA stars that will lead the United States men’s basketball national or Team USA at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup held from Aug. 30 to Sept. 14 in Spain.

Rose from the Chicago Bulls will be playing in his first competitive matches since a slew of career-threatening injuries while Curry and Harden are coming off career seasons with the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, respectively. The trio is expected to lead Team USA in Spain as the nation once again tries to prove their dominance in the world stage.

Rose, Curry and Harden will joined in the Team USA line-up by Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons); DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings); Mason Plumlee (Brooklyn Nets); Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans); Rudy Gay (Sacramento Kings); DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors); Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets); Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors) and Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers).

Not making the final roster for Team USA are Chandler Parsons (Dallas Mavericks); Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers), Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz) and Kyle Korver (Atlanta Hawks), all of whom were cut on Friday as announced by Jerry Colangelo, director of the Team USA basketball.

"Since taking over the USA Basketball Men's National Team program in 2005, this was without doubt the most difficult selection process we've gone through," Jerry Colangelo said in an official statement from Team USA.

Mike Krzyzewski, the head coach of Team USA, looks forward to the competition in Spain adding that the he is excited for the versatility of the 12-man roster but also appreciated the efforts of the other members of the Team USA pool who did not make the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup roster.

"The first thing is we are very pleased with the overall effort of every player who was a part of the process," Mrzyzewski said. “To select twelve was difficult, because our pool is so good. As we go forward, we not only go forward as twelve, we go forward as a pool for USA Basketball. As a staff we want to thank the players who are not going forward.”

Along with the hosts Spain, Team USA will enter the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup as the favourites to win the world championship. Team USA belongs in Group C that features basketball national teams from Dominican Republic, Finland, New Zealand, Turkey and Ukraine.