U.S. Basketball Team Bunks on Silver Cloud

   August 4, 2016 ,   Cruise Industry

The U.S. Men's Basketball team, featuring NBA stars including Carmelo Anthony, Draymond Green, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, will be bunking on luxury Silversea cruise ship Silver Cloud during Rio Olympics.

Silversea has not confirmed the information, but multiple news outlets have identify the 296-passenger vessel docked at Rio's Maua Pier as Silver Cloud, noting that the men's and women's basketball team will be living onboard during the Games.

Silver Cloud is not the only cruise ship that's housing people during the Olympics in Rio, which begin Friday with Opening Ceremonies. Norwegian Getaway has been chartered as a hotel to house corporate sponsors, members of the International Olympic Federation, the National Organizing Committee, and the Rio Host Committee and its guests.  At 4,028 passengers, Getaway dwarves Silver Cloud.

It's also not the first time that cruise ships have been used as alternate housing for athletes during the Olympics. According to National Public Radio, the NBA players who play in the Olympics have a tradition of eschewing the Olympic Village dorms and "going upscale" during the games; the men's team stayed on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 during the Athens Olympics in 2004. At the time, Anthony complained that they were "stuck on a boat;" and in London and Beijing, the star-studded team stayed at hotels closer to the action.