Kevin Durant withdraws from the 2014 World Cup

Kevin Durant informed USA Basketball that he will not participate in the 2014 World Cup, Jerry Colangelo announced Thursday.

Durant cited emotional and physical drain from the regular season and told USA Basketball because of it, he couldn’t fulfill his commitment.

“This was an extremely difficult decision as I take great pride in representing our country. I know that I owe it to my USA Basketball teammates to be totally invested in the experience,” Durant said in a statement. “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.”

The U.S. roster is now down to 15, with 12 set to make the trip to Spain at the end of the month. Previously, teammate Russell Westbrook withdrew his name from the player pool in late July.

“Kevin reached out to Coach K and myself this afternoon and expressed that he is just physically & mentally drained from the season,” Colangelo said in a statement. “He felt coming out of camp that he was not prepared to fulfill the commitment he made to the team.”