Las Vegas ? It once was considered impossible that basketball’s founding nation would ever lose its international supremacy in the fast-growing sport.

The United States is still home to James Naismith’s original peach basket and memories of the 1992 Dream Team, but no longer any major global championships.

Four years of taking repeated bruises on the court and to the ego have left the country’s governing foundation, USA Basketball, hoping for something else deemed impossible: to have the best of both worlds at the worlds.

They want All-Stars who are selfless.

The attempt is to claim the title at the World Championships next month in Japan. To get it done, the new architects of the USA Basketball organization will start a lengthy team-building exercise this week in Las Vegas, followed by a whirlwind international tour designed to unite talented millionaires for the cause. And that will set the stage for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

At the centerpiece are two of the NBA’s biggest names: LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. They are two players not only expected to come together to share the burden, but also, perhaps, to do it at the same time on the floor.

New Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski and new USA Basketball boss Jerry Colangelo have assembled a team full of stars and role players with an eye toward American players’ greatest attributes: athleticism and versatility.

The plan is to get them to work together to erase the lingering doubt after a sixth-place finish at the 2002 World Championships and bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics.

“Continuity and unity are keys,” Krzyzewski said. “That’s an advantage the international teams have had over us.”

It started last year as Colangelo met with dozens of players, looking to identify who met the new goals and ones willing to commit three summers. Some top players decided not to take part. Kobe Bryant was scratched from the roster after undergoing minor surgery on his right knee Saturday. Former Kansas University guard Kirk Hinrich is on the team.

He and his teammates will be at UNLV starting Wednesday for a week-long training camp. Colangelo got James’ commitment to the three-year plan after a meeting in Chicago in December. He is one of the players USA Basketball wants to excel for years to come.

“We said at the start that we weren’t picking an All-Star team,” Colangelo said. “We wanted to compile a team that would have a lot of ingredients.”

There are 25 players on the national team roster, but just 12 will be picked to go to Japan.

Team USA will take part in the China Basketball Challenge in early August in Guangzhou and play against the Chinese and Brazilians. Then it is off to South Korea, for the World Basketball Challenge, where the U.S. will play Italy, Korea, Lithuania and Turkey before heading to Sapporo, Japan, for the opening rounds of the World Championships on Aug. 19.

“There have been lots of changes to how and what we do,” Colangelo said. “Hopefully they’ve taken place for the right reasons.”