The last dance of a generation’s best
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the U.S. Men’s Basketball Team took home its fifth-straight gold medal, defeating France 98-87 in the final on Aug. 10.
“The Avengers,” as captain LeBron James called the team, put their names in the history books alongside other great U.S. squads, such as the 1992 Barcelona “Dream Team” and the 2008 Beijing “Redeem Team.”
I believe “The Avengers” will go down as the greatest Olympic gold team in history as they represented the last dance of a generation of basketball legends.
The story of Team USA’s basketball gold in Paris began at an August 2023 news conference. Noah Lyles, sprinter and 2024 Olympic medalist, declared that NBA players shouldn’t call themselves world champs unless they beat the world’s best, starting a firestorm in NBA circles.
“World champion of what?” Lyles famously said. The quote started a quest to construct the greatest roster ever assembled.
The team the U.S. took to Paris featured many great NBA players. Most prominently, “The Avengers” starred the three greatest players to grace a basketball court this generation: Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
We saw performances from these great ambassadors of the game worthy of their pedigree, solidifying their cases for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
James, “LeCaptain America” and the greatest of all time, became the first player to have multiple Olympic triple-doubles. He leads multiple all-time Olympic stat leaderboards, standing second in assists (139) and first in steals (44). For his efforts, he was named MVP of the tournament at the young age of 39.
Durant did as Durant does, showing why he’s one of the game’s best pure bucket-getters. He now leads all U.S. men and women in points in the Olympics (518) and secured a fourth gold medal.
Last and certainly not least: Wardell Stephen Curry II. Need I say more? There is no doubt that he is the greatest shooter of all time.
His four straight 3-pointers in the fourth quarter of the gold-medal game, including the famous “night-night” dagger over a French double team, ultimately secured gold for Team USA.
This team was so stacked that young NBA standouts, such as Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Halliburton, rarely saw minutes. They, like many young players on this squad, will be the key to the future of U.S. hoops.
In the last 20 years, basketball has truly become an international game. More and more NBA talent is coming from outside the country than ever before.
MVP-caliber players such as the “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo, Serbian big man Nikola Jokić, Slovenian superstar Luka Dončić, and young French phenom Victor Wembanyama have been so impactful to their NBA teams in recent years.
Make no mistake, the night of Aug. 10 was a historic one for the game of basketball. The world may never see pure greatness and dominance on a court as it did that night and during the tournament as a whole.
By the time of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, LeBron will be 43, Curry will be 40 and Durant will be 39.
We may have just seen some of the greatest to ever play the game play together for the last time on a global stage. That is truly special.
