For Kobe and Team USA, operative word is ‘team’

CHICAGO – About once a month, Kobe Bryant gets a note or a book from Mike Krzyzewski.

So do LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups and the other 15 candidates for the U.S. men’s Beijing Olympic basketball team.

“Just to let them know we’re friends,” Krzyzewski, Team USA’s coach, said of why he keeps in touch with his players.

“We feel we’re a team right now. We’re not a selection of All-Stars.

“This is the final step for this four-year period. Our final goal is to win the gold medal, but also do it the right way and develop a program that other players will want to be part of the next four years. Now we’ve got to close the deal by winning the gold medal.”

Krzyzewski and Jerry Colangelo, managing director of USA Basketball, attributed the team unity to a selection process adopted after the U.S. team’s third-place finish at Athens in 2004.

The Beijing squad, selected two years ago and with a core that has played in qualifying games, will have spent far more time together than its predecessors. The 2004 team had 15 practices and six exhibition games before losing to Puerto Rico in its Olympic opener; the 2006 national team had six weeks’ training and the 2007 team played 24 games.

“We’ve asked them to be committed to playing for their country and not just to play,” Krzyzewski said Tuesday during the U.S. Olympic media summit.

“And these guys have done that over the last two years we’ve seen our program develop. Whether it be LeBron, Kobe, Jason Kidd, they feel like they’re part of a team, they’re part of a movement, and they’re very, very proud to represent the U.S.”

Colangelo, who demanded autonomy in selecting the coach and players as a condition of taking the job, said a 12-man roster and three alternates will be submitted to the U.S. Olympic Committee by June 30. The roster can be changed in response to injuries until Aug. 7, the night before the tournament opener.

Team USA will hold a training camp in July and play one game before heading to Asia for four exhibition games. It’s scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Aug. 6, two days before the opening ceremony and four days before its first game.

These plans took shape in Colangelo’s mind in 2004, after he watched a hastily assembled U.S. team founder in Athens under coach Larry Brown.

“Body language, to me, has always been a key in basketball, and it wasn’t pretty. That’s as simple and honest as I can be. I think it covers the whole gamut,” he said. “When I heard and saw what people in our country felt and spoke and wrote about that team, it was pretty evident change needed to take place.

“An important component was looking at the world stage in basketball. Without question the gap had been closed. I feel pride we invented the game, taught the world the game, and they took it very seriously and they became very adept at basketball.”

Krzyzewski said the U.S. team has “a unique opportunity here not only to represent our country but set a standard for how the game should be played. Enthusiasm, camaraderie, attention to detail, those kind of things. The team is showing that and hopefully will.”

He wants “not just a sound bite, one highlight of a dunk but a better appreciation of how to play the game. Our guys did that, especially this past summer. They were very unselfish.”

Both said they’re eager to gauge the progress of Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade’s recovery from a knee injury and plan to talk to him soon. In addition, they said they have been impressed by the MVP-caliber performance this season by New Orleans point guard Chris Paul.

“We have some big decisions to make as we select the 12. At certain positions we’re overloaded and point guard happens be one of them,” Colangelo said, listing Paul, Kidd, Billups and Deron Williams of Utah. “We have to just monitor the injury situation to see who is 100% and able to participate, and Chris Paul is certainly in the mix in a big way.”

A very big mix.

“Where the program has gone now is these guys want to represent their country … and that’s a good problem to have,” Krzyzewski said.

“You all would be amazed at just how cooperative all these guys have been. I have not had one second of problems with the two teams I’ve coached the past two summers. There’s a willingness to do what’s best for the group.”

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Former Dodgers manager Davey Johnson, who will manage the U.S. baseball team in Beijing, welcomes the chance to wear red, white and blue after guiding the Dutch team at the Athens Games.

“It was kind of strange to walk in the opening ceremonies in orange and white,” he said. “I sat next to basketball players wearing USA and wished I could have had their uniform.”

The U.S. won the gold medal in 2000 but didn’t qualify for the Athens Games. This team, to be announced by July 15, will consist of players who are not on major league teams’ 25-man rosters.

It won’t be easy for Bob Watson, Team USA’s general manager, to persuade clubs to release top minor league prospects.

“It’s going to be a very delicate spot for them to be in to let the United States have a top pitcher that is the next guy called up if someone goes down,” he said.

“Instead of looking at player 26, 27, 28, we’re probably looking at player 29. I still feel player 29 is as good as anybody in the world.”

Johnson’s coaching staff will include former Angels manager Marcel Lachemann as the pitching coach and former Dodger Reggie Smith as the batting coach. He expects Japan and Cuba will be Team USA’s prime rivals.

“I’ve got three World Series rings, but I’d trade one of those for a gold medal,” he said.

He also called it “crucial” for the U.S. to have a good showing in Beijing, baseball’s final scheduled appearance on the Olympic program. The International Olympic Committee kicked baseball and softball out of the Games for 2012.

“Hopefully we can get back on for 2016,” Johnson said.

By then, he plans to be retired. Even winning in Beijing wouldn’t rekindle his interest in managing in the major leagues, he said.

If the U.S. team wins, “my next step would be to go to the beach and wear that gold medal around my neck,” he said. “I don’t look [for] any next steps. I really enjoy my wife working and me not working since 2000.”

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Ten months after giving birth to a daughter, Lisa Leslie is about to see the fruits of a different kind of labor.

Leslie, in the final stages of qualifying for her fourth Olympic team, will welcome the publication of her autobiography, “Don’t Let the Lipstick Fool You,” at the end of the month. Written with Larry Burnett, it tells the story of her upbringing in Compton, the mocking she endured for being tall as a child, and her triumphs with the Sparks and the U.S. national team.

“Sometimes we get stereotyped as basketball players, and that’s what we do, not who we are,” she said. “I’m one of the few basketball players who play with lipstick on, but I can be rough and tough when I have to.

“It’s the symbolism of coming out of Compton. You don’t have to be rough and tough. You can be educated and polished.”

Leslie’s daughter, Lauren Lockwood, turned 10 months old Tuesday. Leslie plans to take her along when Team USA competes in a test event in Beijing next week, making it a test event of the baby’s ability to handle the travel, heat and unpredictable air quality.

“Let me ask you how many people they have in China. A billion? I’m sure they have babies,” Leslie said.

“She has a passport. It will be all stamped up before she’s 2. You can’t live in fear. We have to just go for it.”

As for why she wears lipstick when she plays, it’s simple. “Because I think you don’t have to look like the boys to do what the boys do,” she said. “I like to start out the game with my hair combed and my lipstick on, but I can’t tell you what I’ll look like when I’m finished because I’m working as hard as I can when I’m out there.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com