Durant, who is headed to the Golden State Warriors, scored 30 points on a series of highlight-reel plays on Sunday to ignite the Serbia rout.
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“He didn’t make any excuses, he took responsibility for the loss, he gave credit to the Greek team”, Krzyzewski said.
Krzyzewski, 69, will hand the reins to San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich as he leaves Team USA after almost 11 years and with a 24-0 record in the Olympics.
Krzyzewski said it didn’t matter how the Americans won, that there would be no questions as long as they did.
Which is why I’ve never been on board with sending National Basketball Association players to play in the Olympics.
Argentina’s gold medal in 2004 seemed at the time like the world catching up to the USA, but now it looks more like a ideal storm.
“It’s really hard to understand it and have a feeling about it when you’re going through it”, he said of his four Olympic appearances for the U.S., also a men’s record.
Durant will wear that court of public opinion because it comes with the territory, but instead of having to wait all summer to get on the court and get back to business, he was able to play basketball with Team USA as they won the gold medal in the Olympics.
The US Military Academy graduate’s goal as leader of the U.S. men’s national team has always been to make players feel what they’re representing as they play for and win gold.
“We’ve been gone for about five weeks”, Krzyzewski said during a press conference at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Monday morning.
Anthony was on the 2004 team who settled for bronze, a hard-to-swallow result that sparked a re-organisation of the USA programme. But these Olympics quickly planted him right back in front of the country, pinned up as the leader of Team USA. But once in knockout stages, the Americans returned to form, blasting Argentina, defeating eventual bronze medalist Spain and thumping Serbia in the rematch for the gold on Sunday afternoon. Grant Hill, who won gold on the 1996 team, echoed numerous same sentiments concerning Team USA’s lack of continuity and the growth of talent throughout the rest of the world.
In May of 2013 USA Basketball announced that the Rio games would be the last for Krzyzewski, who will be replaced by San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. I’ve been a part of it, but certainly not the only part of it. “The best team in the world, they showed that”. USA Basketball was down and deflated. He got the program organized.
The program has honor coins, like those the United States military uses, to help remind players of what they represent.
The Americans stretched their Olympic win streak to 25 games and overall decade-long winning run to 76 games in the farewell game for USA coach Mike Krzyzewski. “It made my life easier …”
The Warriors’ newest superstar found refuge from his haters while leading Team USA to gold in Rio.
Did I mention that the team the US sent to Brazil – the one that just went 8-0 and won the gold against the best the world has to offer – wasn’t even close to the best team that could have been constructed?
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“I’m incredibly thankful I was given this opportunity”, Krzyzewski said. Our defense adjusted to the type of play we had to play against. “I’ve had a chance to do it a long time and I’ve been lucky”.
