Parity is at or close to an all-time high when it comes to Olympics men’s basketball heading into Rio 2016.
Advertisement
The Americans struggled mightly early behind a starting lineup of Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and DeMarcus Cousins.
The men play their first game Saturday against China and the women begin Olympic play Sunday versus Senegal.
If the USA wins gold this year it will be the team’s third straight Olympic gold medal.
Download the Team USA app today for breaking news, 2016 U.S. Olympic Team bios, videos and more.
“We just wanted to send a statement to the rest of the world”, Anthony said.
“A lot of those guys have already won gold medals before, and those guys have their reasons”. With stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade, the US dominated all the way up until the Gold medal game. Team USA led turnover-plagued China by 20 (30-10) after one quarter, by 29 (59-30) at halftime and by 44 (91-47) after the third quarter that contained an 18-0 US run. This game was most noteworthy for the Staples Center crowd booing Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. Better make it count.
But the Americans didn’t come to Rio de Janeiro for fun and sun. It’s just a private environment for the U.S. basketball national team for women’s and men’s, our coaching staff.”Yes”.
Carmelo Anthony was the first player Jerry Colangelo talked to about joining a new US national basketball team program.
In the men’s competition, National Basketball Association experience is not be limited to the US team. He was just 20 years old, and along with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, represented a new wave of talent – a group that was relegated to the far end of the bench as head coach Larry Brown tried to entrust the team to veterans who would adapt to his style of play. “Anything I get, I’m looking at it like, ‘Wow, Olympic national team.’ That’s insane just to look at it and put it on and be like, ‘I’m DeAndre and I’m representing our country along with 11 other great guys'”.
A bright spot for China on a day when they were completely out of their depth was Yi Jianlian’s 25 points in 30 minutes. There is no other [men’s] basketball player in the history of our country who has participated more than Carmelo. They defeated their main rivals, Spain, in the gold medal games in both 2008 and 2012.
Anthony told reporters that he had been more vocal in speaking out against issues in the United States due to being on “the biggest stage that you can possibly be on”, the Olympic Games.
Advertisement
DeAndre Jordan shook the backboards inside Carioca Arena 1 with some of his powerful dunks, DeMar DeRozan had a couple, and in case the dunks were too easy, Irving knocked in four 3-pointers in the second half for his 12 points.
