We fans will always have Paris.
This has been an Olympics to remember for hoop fans and USA Basketball, when the best of a generation — including three of the top 15 players of all time — came together to have some fun, push each other and win gold. They did just that, beating France in dramatic fashion on Saturday.
TEAM USA VICTORY HUDDLE! #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/etUohomDTS
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 10, 2024
For fans, it was a chance to savor watching these legends of the game one last time, playing together on an international stage. It was a chance to see them at their peak and working together in a way we all too rarely see (certainly not at the All-Star Game).
For the players, it was a chance to paint their legacies in gold.
That starts with Stephen Curry.
Even if he had stayed home this summer and worked on his golf handicap, Curry would have headed the Hall of Fame as the greatest shooter who ever lived. However, he would have entered the Hall with one hole in his resume: No gold medal. This summer he went to Paris and, in the medal round, painted that legacy a sparkling gold — including draining the “golden dagger” to beat France.
STEPH WAS ICE COLD DOWN THE STRETCH. 🥶
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
Four three-pointers in TWO MINUTES AND 11 SECONDS to close out France for the gold medal. 🥇 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/2dR7UUE0Hn
Curry scored 60 points and hit 17 3-pointers across the final two games of the Paris Olympics, and the USA won the gold medal because of it.
His was just one of the legacies added to in Paris.
Kevin Durant came to France and made history. First, he passed Lisa Leslie to become the all-time leading scorer in USA Basketball Olympic history. On top of that, he now has four gold medals — the most of any men’s Olympic basketball player ever.
Durant is a pure hooper; he simply loves basketball. He wants to be pushed, to be challenged, and playing for USA Basketball gives him that (especially in practice), so he kept coming back (he wouldn’t rule out a 2028 return).
Durant should be remembered as the greatest FIBA player ever.
LeBron James already had gold on his resume — a resume that already has him in the GOAT conversation. Yet he came to Paris at age 39 and was the tone setter and MVP of Team USA throughout the Paris Olympics.
LeBron finished the Paris Games leading the USA with 14.2 points, 8.5 assists and 6.5 rebounds a game — he was the Olympics MVP.
⭐️ THE MVP OF #Paris2024 Men's #Basketball ⭐️
— FIBA (@FIBA) August 10, 2024
LeBron James, United States of America 🇺🇸 👑 pic.twitter.com/7S6UWxvNPq
Jrue Holiday joined Scottie Pippen as the only players to win an NBA title and then an Olympic gold medal in the same year — twice. Holiday won gold in Tokyo after earning an NBA title with Milwaukee, and now the Celtics’ guard has done it again.
Team USA will be stacked with talent again in four years when the Olympics come to Los Angeles, but it will feel different. That will be a younger generation looking to make their mark on the international stage — and very likely having to get past Victor Wembanyama and France again to do it.
But that’s in the future.
The Paris Olympics let us bask in the glorious final run of one of the great generations of basketball players. Call them “the Avengers,” call this their swan song, their final years. Call them whatever you want...
But you’d better call them golden.
