LeBron James Comments on Playing Status for Team USA in 2016 Rio Olympics

NBA superstar LeBron James has been an integral member of Team USA's past two gold-medal-winning Olympic teams, but "The King" isn't guaranteed to play in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

"I'm not penciling in for next summer right now," said James of participating in the next Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, per Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated.

Marc Stein of ESPN observed how engaged James appeared to be at Team USA's minicamp on Wednesday at the UNLV campus:      

Golliver also added the factors James is weighing before making a final decision. Those include his family, how the Cleveland Cavaliers' 2015-16 campaign goes and how healthy he is at the time.

In his first season back in Cleveland, James led the Cavs to the NBA Finals, where they lost in six games to the Golden State Warriors. Injuries to Kevin Love in the first round and Kyrie Irving in Game 1 of the championship series forced James to shoulder an incredible burden, which ultimately took its toll.

James sat out for approximately two weeks this past season with knee and back injuries. It's hardly a surprise for a supreme athlete who plays with such explosiveness and has been a paragon of durability during his historic NBA career.

Being present for the minicamp keeps James' eligibility to be on the Olympic squad alive. Actually suiting up suggests James is at least considering the possibility of going for a gold three-peat in Rio.

But plenty is to be decided between now and then. The Cavs are listed at 11-4—the No. 1 favorites to win the NBA title—on Odds Shark. If James indeed does play that much basketball again next season, he may not have enough left in the tank to be an Olympian for the fourth straight time.