The 2024 Paris Olympics has concluded and the United States men's basketball team brought home a fifth straight gold medal by the skin of its teeth. Serbia had the Americans dead to rights until it went dark from 3 (0 for 10 in the fourth quarter) as Stephen Curry was on an all-time heater. France followed that with a scare of its own in the gold-medal game , but Curry once again put on his cape with four 3-pointers in a two-minute stretch as the U.
S. breathed a massive sigh of relief. For me, that was the most entertaining Olympic basketball tournament I've ever watched.
Curry was in full "no freaking way he just did that" mode, and the two white-knuckle endings the Americans had to navigate weren't because they were playing down to the competition. On the contrary, they were forced to raise their level to the apex of their individual and collective talent to win this gold medal. Serbia and France gave us all a wonderful gift by bringing those two performances out of the Americans.
It was just an extraordinary couple weeks of basketball, and along the way, as has been the case with every Olympic competition since we started sending NBA players in 1992, one of the most fun parts of it all was getting to see all these superstars playing together. It makes you wonder: Who would be the Olympic duos you'd most love to see paired up in the NBA? There are actually a bunch, but I've narrowed it down to three -- two of which are probably pure fantasy. But hell, it's the offseason.
Le.