“This experience has been the dream of a lifetime for me”, said USA gymnast and closing ceremony flagbearer Simone Biles, who won five medals, four of them gold, in her first Olympics.
Advertisement
On Sunday against Serbia, he racked up an Olympics-high 30 points and led Team USA to the gold medal.
Durant picked up his second gold medal and while Carmelo Anthony and coach Mike Krzyzewski, coaching his last Olympics for Team USA before ceding to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, picked up their third.
There is still time for new players to emerge and take hold within the U.S. basketball program, but a deep talent pool and preference for experience could make landing a spot a challenge for newcomers.
When Kevin Durant announced he would sign with the Warriors after spending the first nine years of his career with the Thunder, he had to know it wouldn’t go over smoothly with the public. He ruled out returning for Tokyo 2020. “I knew [a backlash] was coming”, Durant said via The Vertical. This is it for me. “I committed to this in ’04. I’m here today three gold medals later”. “An unheard of two straight close games for the US Olympic men’s basketball team have created a question that few dared consider a few days ago”.
“Kevin Durant is one of the great players that we’ve ever had in USA Basketball, that’s for sure, and certainly in the NBA”, Jerry Colangelo declared.
The United States rolled through the Olympic tournament, blowing out Argentina and France to reach the semifinals where it held off Spain before cruising past Serbia in the title game.
Durant caught a lot of heat over the summer after deciding to leave Oklahoma City to join the Golden State Warriors. There wasn’t enough shooting, and there were too many players whose skills overlapped completely, hampering the team’s overall versatility.
That raised doubts about the ability of the newly assembled team to play as a unit and handle the perpetual motion of global play.
This team was a far from the typical favorites that we usually see from the US.
The U.S.is 88-1 in its past 89 games and won’t be slowing down any time soon. And even though Coach Krzyzewski would have prefered not to learn by winning games by three points, the final product was still the same.
The first half ended with the Americans ahead 52-29 and playing like the confident, flamboyant side most expected to see once the roster was named.
But the scares weren’t over, with the United States then facing France in the final game of group play.
“To come out there and play as well as we did against a team that had stepped up their play as well, it showed that we came together at the right time”, Durant said. “Winning’s not always easy”, Cousins said.
In the second half, it was only a matter of settling the final margin and seeing some highlight-reel U.S. moves, notably an alley oop slam dunk by DeMar DeRozan early in the fourth quarter.
Advertisement
The US beat Serbia on the board by 54-33 and led as many as 41 points.
