Saturday afternoon saw the conclusion of what will go down as some of the best olympic basketball play in the history of its run. The world wide talent was very much on display and served as a declaration for the product of talent that is yet to come as the game continually expands. Before I get carried away with what the future may entail in that regard, us Americans reminded everyone that for the time being we still run the show. With what may very well be regarded as the most talented team ever assembled alongside the dream team.
Olympic debutant, Steph Curry stole the show late in France carrying the momentum from his performance against a hard fought victory against Serbia. Although it should come to no surprise that the clutch player of the year showed up when it mattered most, he has continuously rewrote the narratives that naysayers have attempted to stain his legacy with. And his response simply suggested that his brand of basketball will stand the test of time, with a legacy that will never grasped by the talents of generations to come.
As for the Lebron James he clings on to his third winners medal, while walking away with the title for the tournament’s MVP. At 39 years of age, Lebron came out the gates running, pushing the pace, getting downhill in a manner we would be accustomed to by his prime self. For the longevity king, it should come to no surprise that he remains as impactful as any other superstar in the game, especially when you’ve got reigning NBA champion Jason Tatum glued to the bench.
For as much longevity credit Lebron James has rightfully claimed, Kevin Durant should very well be in the mix of such conversations. It seems just yesterday he went down in game 5 at Toronto and left the basketball world in terror for what was to be of their beloved superstar, yet that is all but in the back window, with an evolved gamed of minimalism and efficiency of getting to his spots. Unfortunately, we may have not seen the best of Kevin Durant in the finals against France, but the job was done and he gets to walk away as the leading scorer in the history of USA men’s basketball. And for a pure hooper like Durant, could we conclusively say this was his final go around? I am willing to go out on a limb and say, this wasn’t the last of him and quite frankly with the Wembenyama flashing that much talent against the best in the world at 19 too? We’ll need all the help we can get.
There is a brand of basketball that the stars for the 2010s era have created, but the stars of the future are rewriting as we currently speak. During this olympics go around we saw the two in collaboration with a single objective of winning gold and achieving to the burden of expectation that grows heavier as we fast forward every four years. What we saw from Durant, Lebron, and Curry will be missed, from what they represented to the fans, to the level of passion that injected into the game. They transcended the game and now we can only hope that we can see an inkling of it replicated by our future homegrown stars.
