After missing the 2012 Olympics, Dwight Howard expressed his interest in playing for Team USA in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

"No doubt," Howard said when asked if he wants to play for the men's national team in the next Olympiad.

Howard, who will be 30 when the 2016 Olympics arrive, was not able to participate last summer with a back injury but had been invited to be a member of the team.

"I was pissed off," Howard said. "I was mad I couldn't play in the playoffs. I was mad I couldn't play in the Olympics. I was pissed. I was looking forward to going to London. I was looking forward to making a big run in the playoffs last season, so I wasn't too happy about the fact that I had to have surgery and miss a lot of basketball."

The Boston Celtics are interested in signing D.J. White to a 10-day contract.

White has been playing this season in China.

White averaged 21.6 points on 55.9 percent shooting with 9.7 rebounds over 32 games for Shanghai Dongfang.

The Boston Celtics have officially signed free agent guard/forward Terrence Williams to a 10-day contract.

Williams, a 6’6” guard/forward, joins the Celtics after competing in the Chinese Basketball Association with the Guangdong Southern Tigers. While with Guangdong, he averaged 17.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.2 steals in 29 games. 

The San Antonio Spurs lead the NBA with eight international players on its current roster.

The international players include Tony Parker (France), Manu Ginobili (Argentina), Tiago Splitter (Brazil), Boris Diaw (France), Nando De Colo (France), Patrick Mills (Australia), Cory Joseph (Canada) and Aron Baynes (Australia).

The Spurs have been at the forefront of acquiring top international talent over the years, but Gregg Popovich believes the rest of the NBA has caught on.

“There are great coaches and great players all over the world at this point, and I think everybody finally believes that,” said Popovich. “It took a while for the NBA to buy into it. I don’t mean the league, I mean teams, coaches, general managers.”

Popovich has seen firsthand the growth of international players during his time as an assistant coach of Team USA during the 2002 World Basketball Championship, the 2003 FIBA Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament and the 2004 Olympic Games.

“They taught us a lot of lessons for a long time,” said Popovich. “I think it might be getting a little better now, but skills-wise Europeans got way ahead of us. Shooting skills, passing skills, ball handling skills, team play, and movement of the basketball. For a good while we were really being beaten in those areas and it showed in the play of our young players. I think it’s added a lot to the game having these coaches and these players from overseas be in the league and be able to watch what they’ve done. I think it’s helped American basketball look at itself in that sense and so kids hopefully have gotten back to just not becoming a dunker or three-point shooter, they want to be a basketball player.”

While there has been a steady growth of international players in the NBA, Popovich believes the next step could be the integration of international coaches to the NBA.

“Absolutely,” said Popovich on the thought of international coaches making the jump to the NBA. “There are coaches overseas that are as good or better than we who are the coaches here.” 

Ettore Messina spent one season as a consultant to the Los Angeles Lakers, while Maurizio Gerardini has been assistant GM of the Toronto Raptors since 2006.

Duke's Mike Krzyzewski said last summer that the 2012 Olympics would be his last year with USA Basketball, but the men's national team continues to pursue Coach K and will not name a coach until after the college season, according to sources.

One of Team USA's key motivations is to give Krzyzewski as much time as possible to consider another run with the program.

Team USA officials are holding out hope that Krzyzewski can be talked into one more tour as coach.

Candidates that have been mentioned as possible successors to Krzyzewski are Gregg Popovich, Doc Rivers, Doug Collins and Michigan State's Tom Izzo.

Rudy Fernandez has been named Euroleague's Top-16, Week 6 MVP.

Fernandez had 20 points and 13 rebounds in Real Madrid's 86-78 victory over CSKA.