Santa Cruz Warriors’ Damion Lee named to Team USA’s World Cup Roster

In part one of this week’s #SurfCitySummary, we take a look at Damion Lee of the Santa Cruz Warriors, who was named to USA Men’s World Cup Qualifying Team on Thursday.

After Georges Niang signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz, I confidently stated that Damion Lee would likely be the next Santa Cruz Warriors player to get called up. I think the fact that he was chosen to represent the country on Team USA supports that notion.

On Thursday, USA Basketball announced that Surf City’s D.Lee would be replacing Marcus Thornton on the USA Men’s FIBA World Cup Qualifying Team. Since the 2017 AmeriCup, Team USA has opted to pull players only from the G League, rendering Thornton ineligible after he signed a 10-day contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This season, Lee has appeared in 33 games with the Santa Cruz Warriors (11 starts), averaging 14.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.3 steals in 28.9 minutes per game. He’s shot 43.8 percent from the field thus far in the season, 29.6 percent from behind the arc and 91.4 percent from the free throw line.

Lee would have joined Terrence Jones on Team USA had the latter not been replaced by Derek Willis on the final roster.

Jones finished with eight points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block vs. Mexico in the NBA G League International Challenge, which replaced the NBA G League All-Star game at 2018 NBA All-Star Weekend.

Jones’ cut from the team comes as quite the surprise as Team USA heads into the next two games of the second window of the first qualifying round for the 2018 FIBA World Cup. Both games are set to be played at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz.

Lucky for Surf City, another Sea Dubs player was chosen to represent the Warriors brand overseas, and his selection was well-deserved. Let’s take a look at a few of Lee’s best performances this season.