The biggest shocker and the crucial one that might bring the Star Spangled hoops team on its knees has happened! Kevin Durant suddenly quits Team USA!

The Oklahoma City Thunder superstar and also the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player,  aired his statement. This one from ESPN:

"This was an extremely difficult decision as I take great pride in representing our country," Durant said in a statement. "I know that I owe it to my USA Basketball teammates to be totally invested in the experience. After going through training camp with USAB, I realized I could not fulfill my responsibilities to the team from both a time and energy standpoint.

I need to take a step back and take some time away, both mentally and physically in order to prepare for the upcoming NBA season. I will be rooting for USAB and look forward to future opportunities with them."

While this is the biggest blow to their team, one that they might not be able to recover from, Team USA director Jerry Colangelo was more than diplomatic in his response.

"He tried to give it a go at our recent Las Vegas training camp but felt coming out of camp that he was not prepared to fulfill the commitment he made to the team. Coach K and I fully support Kevin. His well being is the most important thing to us and we support him taking the time to get ready for next season.

"He's been part of the National Team program for eight years and a big part of the success we have achieved, and we look forward to him being part of our success in the future as well."

You could almost form a formidable national team from the players that withdrew or was cut due to injury from Team USA in the past months: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love and now Kevin Durant.

The big question is his replacement. There was already a gaping hole in the power forward position as the top 3 "fours" in the league (Love, Griffin, Aldridge) all withdrew. Durant was supposed to take monster minutes in that position and now he's gone. It might be too late to invite new players and the pool is down to 15.