Nine-time NBA All-Star guard Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers will not be playing for the national team of the United States in the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 6 to 21.

The NBA superstar played for the U.S. basketball team in 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London. Paul could have joined fellow All-Stars LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks in trying to win three Olympic basketball gold medals and become the first men's players to do so.

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"He's made a major contribution to USA Basketball. I think he was great for us and I think it was good for him to be part of what we did, and we're appreciative of that," Jerry Colangelo, the chairman of the USA Basketball, said on Tuesday. "That's the way it should be when a player gets to a point and makes a decision that it might not be best to push it, to push the envelope as you get on in your career, and so we respect that decision."

Paul, who will be turning 31 this coming May, played for the national team as a rookie in the 2006 world basketball championship prior to the Beijing and London Games, where they brought home the gold. The 2004 USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year told Sports Illustrated, which first reported the Clippers' hotshot decision Tuesday, that, "I feel my body telling me that I could use the time."

There will be 12 countries competing at the prestigious basketball event. The U.S. dominated the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain and secured its Olympic slot.

Other countries that will be competing in Rio are the host country Brazil, 2015 FIBA Oceana champions Australia, AfroBasket 2015 winner Nigeria, 2015 FIBA Americas Championships finalists Venezuela and Argentina, EuroBasket 2015 finalists Spain and Lithuania and 2015 FIBA Asia champions China.

The three remaining berths will be determined in the upcoming 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments this July.

TagsLos Angeles Clippers, NBA, us national basketball team, 2016 Summer Olympics, Stephen Curry, FIBA, China national basketball team, chris paul