PUSHED RIGHT TO disaster’s precipice by Serbia, the US’ star-spangled basketball team managed to dig in their heels and start pushing back just before it was too late.
They have not been beaten at the Olympic Games since 2004, but at one point on Thursday night they by 17 points, the biggest deficit at which they stared since the Athens defeat to Argentina.
Even at the start of the fourth quarter, the US trailed by 13 points.
But then LeBron James, Joel Embiid, and Kevin Durant all muttered their own, discrete versions of f**k this. So having simply refused to lose, they went about sorting out the arithmetic of it. The trio combined for 22 points, gobbling up Serbia’s lead before belching out the anticipated fare.
Steph Curry, outstanding all night, first put the US ahead with a three-pointer with 2:24 left on the clock, and the US had a two-point lead with 40 seconds left. They also had the ball. LeBron dallied in the middle of the court, at least partly to spend the clock. The ball was then worked to Kevin Durant who ignored any other options and waved his team-mates to get out of the way. They eventually cleared the path and just as the shot clock ticked to its end, Durant sent the ball sailing cleanly through the net. A schoolyard act of ostentatious individualism.
But of course it worked. The US held out for a 95-91 victory, LeBron and Curry screaming in each other’s faces in celebration at the end. LeBron himself went into superhuman mode to get the game over the line at the end, finally dominating defensive rebounds and showing he is still capable of sweeping forward and contorting his body in whatever way is necessary to convert from close range. He’s still doing this, even as streaks of grey infiltrate his beard.
Curry is the American captain but had been under-par at the Games prior to Thursday night: where he has averaged roughly 42% of his three-point conversion across his NBA career, he was at just 25% in Paris. The court on which they play the Olympics is slightly smaller than the dimensions used in the NBA, meaning the three-point line is almost half a metre closer to the net. Maybe he was initially thrown by the easier task, calling to mind Johan Cryuff’s gnomic description of penalties as being “easy…which is what makes them difficult.”
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Curry found his range against Serbia though, leaping to 63% conversion rate with his gorgeously haughty kind of swagger. He sank two before finding himself in the corner tossing his third, turning his back on the shot before the ball fell frictionlessly through.
Perhaps Curry had already seen the ball go in and the rest of the world were lagging behind, as if we were all watching on a dodgy stream. Watching Curry feint and dribble is to be convinced that the guy is working on his own plane, on which he perceives and filters time and space much more quickly than the rest of us.
And yet despite Curry’s return to form and LeBron’s eternal heroics, the Americans nearly went and lost this. Certainly the result was cruel on Serbia, who were arrayed around the mildly baffling figure of Nikola Jokic, a guy whose frame makes him a fit for basketball but whose all-around skills belie it.
But whereas Jokic was the planet around which the rest of the Serbian players revolved, the Americans were working with a whole solar system. As they toiled and trailed in the first half, it was curious to see them toss the ball around so much. Jrue Holiday sacrificed two scoring opportunities of his own to give the ball to team-mates in less advantageous positions – both were missed – while even LeBron threw a sloppy intercept across the court.
But as the Serbians tired in the final quarter, the US rescued their patent on this gold medal by simply indulging their superior individual talents.
The narrative around the American team is always about egos. How on earth do you cohere these guys into a single collective unit?
This was deemed the miracle of the Dream Team of 1992 in Barcelona, which Larry Bird ascribed to the coach, Chuck Daly. “Chuck didn’t have any problem with ego,” said Bird, “because Chuck’s got a bigger ego than any of us.”
The assumption after 1992 was that the alchemy could not be struck again. And yet the US won gold in 1996. And 2000. And 2008. And 2012. And 2016. And 2021.
It’s implausible that the allegedly magical formula of 1992 was met at four-year intervals and on deadline for almost all of the next 30 years. Perhaps it was a factor, but the overwhelming reason for this run of gold is the fact the US have the better players.
The gap is narrowing – partly as a result of the global popularisation of the NBA that accelerated in Barcelona in ’92 – but on Thursday, Jokic played 37 of the 40 minutes, more than anyone else from either team. While the European teams have American-style stars, but they don’t yet have American-style depth.
Steve Kerr is the head coach this time around, a man of empathy and zeal but not a man of Dalyesque ego. But when you’ve got a squad this good, it doesn’t matter.
So forget about sanding down the edges of respective egos in order to piece them all into the jigsaw. The virtuoso acts of the final quarter against Serbia was proof that the egos of these superstars will be the US’ salvation.
So Kerr should spend the build-up to Saturday’s final against France indulging these male egos. Let them do the stuff of egotistical millennial men. Let them post from the gym. Let them start a podcast. Let them binge YouTube and become reliant on Jordan Peterson for emotional support and reinforcement.
Let the American players fight the hostile atmosphere of Saturday’s final against France with the strange but genuine collective power that they, individually and alone, should be the guy to win the gold medal for Team USA.
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America's star-spangled basketball team are a collection of egos - that's why it works
PUSHED RIGHT TO disaster’s precipice by Serbia, the US’ star-spangled basketball team managed to dig in their heels and start pushing back just before it was too late.
They have not been beaten at the Olympic Games since 2004, but at one point on Thursday night they by 17 points, the biggest deficit at which they stared since the Athens defeat to Argentina.
Even at the start of the fourth quarter, the US trailed by 13 points.
But then LeBron James, Joel Embiid, and Kevin Durant all muttered their own, discrete versions of f**k this. So having simply refused to lose, they went about sorting out the arithmetic of it. The trio combined for 22 points, gobbling up Serbia’s lead before belching out the anticipated fare.
Steph Curry, outstanding all night, first put the US ahead with a three-pointer with 2:24 left on the clock, and the US had a two-point lead with 40 seconds left. They also had the ball. LeBron dallied in the middle of the court, at least partly to spend the clock. The ball was then worked to Kevin Durant who ignored any other options and waved his team-mates to get out of the way. They eventually cleared the path and just as the shot clock ticked to its end, Durant sent the ball sailing cleanly through the net. A schoolyard act of ostentatious individualism.
But of course it worked. The US held out for a 95-91 victory, LeBron and Curry screaming in each other’s faces in celebration at the end. LeBron himself went into superhuman mode to get the game over the line at the end, finally dominating defensive rebounds and showing he is still capable of sweeping forward and contorting his body in whatever way is necessary to convert from close range. He’s still doing this, even as streaks of grey infiltrate his beard.
Curry is the American captain but had been under-par at the Games prior to Thursday night: where he has averaged roughly 42% of his three-point conversion across his NBA career, he was at just 25% in Paris. The court on which they play the Olympics is slightly smaller than the dimensions used in the NBA, meaning the three-point line is almost half a metre closer to the net. Maybe he was initially thrown by the easier task, calling to mind Johan Cryuff’s gnomic description of penalties as being “easy…which is what makes them difficult.”
Curry found his range against Serbia though, leaping to 63% conversion rate with his gorgeously haughty kind of swagger. He sank two before finding himself in the corner tossing his third, turning his back on the shot before the ball fell frictionlessly through.
Perhaps Curry had already seen the ball go in and the rest of the world were lagging behind, as if we were all watching on a dodgy stream. Watching Curry feint and dribble is to be convinced that the guy is working on his own plane, on which he perceives and filters time and space much more quickly than the rest of us.
And yet despite Curry’s return to form and LeBron’s eternal heroics, the Americans nearly went and lost this. Certainly the result was cruel on Serbia, who were arrayed around the mildly baffling figure of Nikola Jokic, a guy whose frame makes him a fit for basketball but whose all-around skills belie it.
But whereas Jokic was the planet around which the rest of the Serbian players revolved, the Americans were working with a whole solar system. As they toiled and trailed in the first half, it was curious to see them toss the ball around so much. Jrue Holiday sacrificed two scoring opportunities of his own to give the ball to team-mates in less advantageous positions – both were missed – while even LeBron threw a sloppy intercept across the court.
But as the Serbians tired in the final quarter, the US rescued their patent on this gold medal by simply indulging their superior individual talents.
The narrative around the American team is always about egos. How on earth do you cohere these guys into a single collective unit?
This was deemed the miracle of the Dream Team of 1992 in Barcelona, which Larry Bird ascribed to the coach, Chuck Daly. “Chuck didn’t have any problem with ego,” said Bird, “because Chuck’s got a bigger ego than any of us.”
The assumption after 1992 was that the alchemy could not be struck again. And yet the US won gold in 1996. And 2000. And 2008. And 2012. And 2016. And 2021.
It’s implausible that the allegedly magical formula of 1992 was met at four-year intervals and on deadline for almost all of the next 30 years. Perhaps it was a factor, but the overwhelming reason for this run of gold is the fact the US have the better players.
The gap is narrowing – partly as a result of the global popularisation of the NBA that accelerated in Barcelona in ’92 – but on Thursday, Jokic played 37 of the 40 minutes, more than anyone else from either team. While the European teams have American-style stars, but they don’t yet have American-style depth.
Steve Kerr is the head coach this time around, a man of empathy and zeal but not a man of Dalyesque ego. But when you’ve got a squad this good, it doesn’t matter.
So forget about sanding down the edges of respective egos in order to piece them all into the jigsaw. The virtuoso acts of the final quarter against Serbia was proof that the egos of these superstars will be the US’ salvation.
So Kerr should spend the build-up to Saturday’s final against France indulging these male egos. Let them do the stuff of egotistical millennial men. Let them post from the gym. Let them start a podcast. Let them binge YouTube and become reliant on Jordan Peterson for emotional support and reinforcement.
Let the American players fight the hostile atmosphere of Saturday’s final against France with the strange but genuine collective power that they, individually and alone, should be the guy to win the gold medal for Team USA.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
2024 Olympics lequipe de reve Paris 2024