It was Durant’s monster second quarter that ended any notion of an upset for Serbia and put the USA on the gold-medal stand for the third consecutive Olympics with a 96-66 victory over the Serbians, who surprised in these Olympics by taking the silver.
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The U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team won its third straight gold medal and did it easily, beating Serbia 96-66 on Sunday. “This is it for me”.
The U.S. continued to pour it on in the second half, making it a smooth gold-medal game after an Olympics filled with bumps in the road. “And I’m here today three gold medals later”, Anthony said.
Rio Olympics Basketball Men: United States’ Kevin Durant celebrates winning the men’s basketball gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016.
Anthony, 32, chose to play with the US team in a summer in which close friends LeBron James, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade either passed on the chance to play or were sidelined by injury.
Now there’s nothing left to do for Anthony, whose Olympic career began in disgrace and ends with him being the most decorated player to ever wear a United States of America jersey.
“To go home as gold medalists and leave Coach K off with another gold was one of our main goals as well”, Durant said.
But along with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant and others, Anthony helped pump pride and power back into the US program, which remains on top of the world. It’s not just how they played, but how they acted and how unselfish they were. The only competition left in the second half was with the US women’s basketball team, who sat in the stands cheering them on. As his teammates celebrated on the court around him, the 32-year-old Knicks forward declared his Olympic career to be over.
“It’s just his love for the game”, said USA forward Paul George, who completed his own fantastic story following a horrific leg injury. And representing our country on the biggest stage that you can be on, America will be great again, I believe that.
Anthony wasn’t the U.S.’s best player at these Olympics, but he was a veteran presence on a young team and an experienced guiding hand for a group made up largely of first-timers.
It’s another sign of his maturity, which outgoing US coach Mike Krzyzewski saw developing 10 years ago.
Twelve years after their bronze finish in the Athens Games sparked so much change in the national program, and a decade after a bronze finish in the FIBA World Championship in Japan had Mike Krzyzewski’s tenure as Team USA coach off to an inauspicious start, their run of perfection continues. It was another focus level that we took ourselves to.
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The Americans haven’t lost since, winning 76 straight games counting exhibitions. They were cheering me on along the way, and everybody was encouraging me, and I just went out there and had fun with the game. I’ve seen the worst and I’ve seen the best. “I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world”.
