Stephen Curry was enthusiastic about this two years in the past, after profitable his fourth NBA title with the Golden State Warriors. The one factor left for him to win was Olympic gold.
And within the final second, he made positive that medal can be his.
The U.S. is atop the worldwide males’s basketball world as soon as once more, after Curry scored 24 factors and led the way in which to a 98-87 win over France within the remaining on the Paris Video games on Saturday evening. It was the fifth consecutive gold medal for the U.S. — and the seventeenth in 20 all-time appearances for the People on the video games.
Curry made 4 3-pointers within the remaining 2:43, together with the one which simply sealed the win with 1:19 remaining. It put the U.S. up 93-84 and he skipped down the courtroom letting out a yell, shaking his jersey so everybody may see the “USA” throughout the entrance.
If that wasn’t sufficient, yet another adopted with about 30 seconds left — with the “fall asleep” transfer the place he places his fingers on the aspect of his face.
Good evening. Recreation over. Gold received. Once more.
“For me to get a gold medal is insane, and I thank God for the chance to expertise it,” Curry mentioned.
Kevin Durant — the primary four-time males’s gold medalist in Olympic basketball historical past — scored 15 for the People, as did Devin Booker. And LeBron James, carrying metallic gold footwear that wanted no clarification, scored 14 for the U.S. as he received his fourth Olympic medal and third gold.
For the second consecutive Olympics, the French needed to watch the People maintain out U.S. flags in celebration after the title sport. The French misplaced to the U.S. 87-82 in Tokyo three years in the past, and this one was all the way down to the ultimate minutes.
That’s, till Curry took over.
“I feel we is perhaps the one staff on the planet whose followers are ashamed of them in the event that they get a silver medal,” mentioned U.S. coach Steve Kerr, the Golden State coach whose run with the U.S. ends now with a 21-3 file and Olympic gold — 11-0 this summer season. “That is the strain that we face. However our gamers, and also you noticed Steph, they love the strain. They recognize this ambiance and so they had been implausible.”
Victor Wembanyama, in his first Olympic remaining, was good for France, scoring 26 factors — the second-most ever towards the U.S. in a gold-medal sport, one level behind the 27 that Drazen Dalipagic scored for Yugoslavia in 1976.
Wembanyama coated his face in a towel afterward because the People celebrated. Guerschon Yabusele scored 20 for the hosts.
“For positive, it is a disappointment as a result of we anticipated we may do it,” France coach Vincent Collet mentioned. “However we’ve got to acknowledge on the finish that they’re higher. We’re very shut … Once they make implausible pictures, that is the distinction.”
The U.S. lead was 14 early within the third, trying poised to drag away. However the offense shortly went chilly and when Evan Fournier related on a 3-pointer with 3:05 left within the quarter the lead was all the way down to 65-59 — a 12-4 run by the hosts.
And with an opportunity to go up double-digits headed to the fourth, a giant U.S. blunder gave France one other jolt of momentum. Anthony Edwards and Durant bought their indicators crossed on a go that led to a turnover, Nando De Colo scored to beat the buzzer and the U.S. lead was solely 72-66 going into the ultimate 10 minutes.
It bought as shut as three. No nearer, due to Curry. It was 4 3-pointers in a span of two:12, and so they instantly went into Olympic lore.
“An enormous shot to place us up six. That form of settled all the things,” Curry mentioned. “After which the rhythm, the avalanche got here, and fortunately the opposite three went in. That was an unbelievable second. I have been blessed to play basketball at a excessive degree for a really very long time. This ranks very excessive when it comes to pleasure and the sense of aid, attending to the end line.”
It was the eighth time in Olympic historical past — and Sunday’s girls’s remaining between the U.S. and France will mark the ninth — that the house staff bought to play for basketball gold.
Dwelling groups at the moment are 5-3 in these video games, 2-1 on the boys’s aspect. The U.S. women and men each received in 1984 and 1996; the ladies of the Soviet Union received in 1980, whereas Australia’s girls misplaced to the U.S. in 2000 and Japan’s girls additionally misplaced to the U.S. on the Tokyo Video games three years in the past.
For James, it was yet another factor for the neverending listing that’s his legacy. For Durant, it was historical past with 4 golds. For Booker, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum and Bam Adebayo, it was a second gold. For Jrue Vacation, it was a second gold to match his spouse — soccer nice Lauren Cheney Vacation — for the household lead. For Derrick White, Tyrese Haliburton, Joel Embiid and Anthony Edwards, it was the primary Olympic title.
And for Curry, it was a very long time coming. The Olympics by no means match into his schedule till now. The People could not have been extra thrilled that he was there for this one.
“It is all the things I needed them to be,” Curry mentioned. “And extra.”
He likened it to a Recreation 7 on the highway, which it mainly was. He is had huge success in these moments: a 50-point outburst to steer Golden State previous Sacramento in 2023, and a 27-point, nine-rebound, 10-assist sport to win a do-or-die in Houston in 2018.
And now, this.
“It is proper up there with all the best video games of his profession,” Kerr mentioned. “The shot-making was simply unbelievable. However underneath the circumstances, on the highway, in Paris, towards France for a gold medal, that is storybook stuff. However that is what Steph does. He likes to be in storybooks.”
