PARIS — The ball bounced off the rim five times.
five!
Late in the fourth quarter, Stephen Curry broke away from Joel Embiid’s brick screen and Serbian guard Ogojen Dobric hit the wall like Wile E. Wolf and collapsed. land, and the greatest shooter of all time knocked down a three-pointer.
Time was no one’s friend in this FIBA-style game, and with 144 seconds remaining, the United States took the lead for the first time since midway through the first quarter. In the end, the United States defeated Serbia 95-91, completing one of the most stunning comebacks ever from a 17-point deficit and advancing to the Olympic gold medal game against France. Ultimately, we’ll truly appreciate how close this team – featuring LeBron James, Curry, Kevin Durant and many other all-time talents – came to achieving notoriety even more than it did in 2004 That team.
Stephen. curry. Team USA leads the way.#parisolympics | 📺NBC, USA Network and Peacock pic.twitter.com/C4MUUl1v78
— NBC Olympics and Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 8, 2024
Phew.
I honestly don’t know what else to say.
When you cover an international event like the Olympics, the level of support some non-American media outlets have for their respective teams is, honestly, pretty off-putting. Some reporters cheered the news brawl, which is considered taboo in the U.S., and some even shouted disparaging words about U.S. players like Joel Embiid (true story).
But watching these Americans go to the edge like they did, and anticipating the scrutiny that guys like you get when they fall short, is to silently hope that shots like Curry’s final three will fall . This dynamic simply doesn’t exist in the NBA, and it stems from the reality that you know one group better than others. When Curry got the job done, stealing a pass from Bogdan Bogdanovic and converting a coast-to-coast left-to-right layup, the U.S. was up 91-86 with 1:01 left. Ahead, people breathed a sigh of relief.
As Team USA head coach Steve Kerr later shared, Curry looked like a player who couldn’t wait. In four games, he averaged a whopping 7.3 points per game, the only bright spot. His first Olympic experience was an exhibition game against Serbia on July 17, when he scored 24 points.
Compared to this, it’s just child’s play. Curry was unconscious, shooting 12 of 19 from the field and 9 of 14 from three-point range, scoring 36 points.
Do you know how many times in his storied career he made so many threes in 14 attempts or fewer? According to Stathead.com, there are nine games played, including a total of 1,103 games played between the regular season and playoffs (0.8% of the time). As a reminder, these games are 40 minutes long, not the 48 minutes we see in the NBA. The fact that it happened during a game where Team USA was in dire need of a basketball hero made it even more epic.
“I’ve felt at times over the past few weeks that (Curry) has been working too hard,” said Warriors head coach Kerr, who has had a front-row seat to Curry’s greatness for a decade. “He cares a lot about the game and keeps working hard. We all know who he is and what he does, and I almost want to tell him, ‘Hey, take a day off,’ but that’s not who he is. He works extremely hard, and in He’s worked his way through the last few weeks to get to tonight’s game.
The 36-year-old Curry was still able to fully enjoy the Olympic experience off the court, insisting the walls were not closed.
“I didn’t feel (pressure) at all because we won every game by … 15, 20,” he said. “I knew I was going to impact the game in other ways. But about two minutes into tonight’s game, we realized I was getting noticed and they were playing a different type of defense on us. Obviously, they were scoring like crazy on the other end, so You just have to keep going and get lost in the moment.
“That’s what the game calls for. I shot three times in the last game (in the win over Brazil) and I didn’t want to force it because that’s not what the game calls for. That’s what Team USA and FIBA and the whole experience are about.” The beauty of it is that every game has different people.
Still, hearing Curry’s story made him realize the role would be a huge adjustment for him. Although he shot only 35.7% from the field and 25% from three-point range (5 of 20) against Serbia, he only averaged 7 shots per game. That context, the reality that this team has made it difficult for so many great players to find the way to play the way they did on NBA teams, is often overlooked in the discussion.
“I didn’t have much of a chance,” Corey said bluntly. “I didn’t shoot the ball very well the whole game, but that doesn’t shake your confidence going into this moment.”
He has done this too.
As one of the greatest basketball games of all time ends, James — who was part of the ’04 team that the USA Basketball program wants everyone to forget — throws the ball in the air and looks down to find Curry waiting for a hug. His unbridled joy. It was a surreal scene by all accounts, and the two NBA rivals shared memories no one could have imagined when the Cavaliers and Warriors battled in the Finals for years.
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So, I asked James, where does this game rank from a purely emotional standpoint?
“I mean, it’s right there,” said four-time champion and Los Angeles Lakers star James, whose triple-double (16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists) played a big role in the victory. “I mean, I’m 39 years old and going into my 22nd season. I don’t know how many opportunities or moments like this I’m going to get to be able to compete for important things and play in important games.
This game is bigger than big. It’s amazing how all this history is tied up with some of the most important players falling by the wayside for the sake of national pride. Just listen to Kevin Durant, the Phoenix Suns star who won two championships with Curry in Golden State, sounding like he’s never seen anything like this before.
“Stephen, man, that was a God-like performance,” said Durant, who forced Bogdanovic to commit a key backcourt violation with 1:34 left and added 34 seconds left. Hit a nasty jumper with seconds remaining to give the U.S. a 93-89 lead. “Man, (Curry) was so tough. He felt like he was struggling the whole game, and we always say it’s probably going to be a different guy every night (every game). Tonight, he showed up one way , man…”
Durant could hardly find words to describe it.
“Shoot after shot, steal, layup after layup,” he said. “He was everywhere tonight. This was one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen him play.
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(Top photo of Stephen Curry and Alexa Avramovich: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
