PARIS — “A Gold Medal in Four Acts,” authored by and starring Wardell Stephen Curry.
Stephen Curry hugged Kevin Durant at midcourt at Bercy Arena. They each had hold of a U.S. flag, that enveloped both of them. They had won back-to-back NBA championships together, when they changed the path of the league by joining forces with the Golden State Warriors. Now, they were celebrating something that only a few people get to do in basketball: win an Olympic gold medal, in another country. And, very few people have had to do it as, essentially, the road team, with a sellout crowd here doing everything in its power to will its beloved French national team to an improbable, titanic upset.
But Curry, simply, would not allow it.
With four 3-pointers in the last three minutes, on four shots, one more ridiculous than the last, with the last defying all common sense and logic, Curry secured the United States’ fifth straight gold medal in men’s Olympic basketball, holding off France, 98-87. It was Durant’s fourth gold medal. His place as the greatest player in U.S. international basketball history is secure. This was Curry’s first gold. At 36, it may well be his only gold. But he wanted this so, so badly, and has wanted it for a long, long time.
“We always say, you do what the game calls for, and what you kind of feel in the flow,” Curry said afterward, after he’d hit eight 3-pointers Saturday, to go with the nine he’d made in the Americans’ incredible come-from-behind victory over Serbia in the semifinals.
LeBron James was a worthy MVP of the tournament. What he did during this fortnight, at age 39, is simply beyond description. But Curry was the indispensable man the last two games, when the medals were on the line. That he did it after not shooting well at all during group play is just part of the Curry legend.
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“Coach (Steve Kerr) reminded me, at a certain point, early, the game will come to you if you allow it,” Curry said. “And even if I was missing shots, just stay engaged. And that kind of fed into being locked in for these last two games, because the game called for me to get shots up, and knock them down. … you just stay confident, stay present, and don’t get rattled by the moment.”
There was a reason Curry was so excited — “like a little kid,” USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill said back in April — when he was formally invited to play for USA Basketball, after being injured in 2016, and opting not to play in Japan in 2021. There was no doubt, once James and Durant committed again to playing for their country, that Curry would join them.
“And I had two extra months to practice,” Curry said, referring to the Warriors not making the playoffs this past season.
The Americans had the upper hand for most of the game Saturday. But a sloppy end of the third quarter, with more miscues in the fourth, and the ravenous home crowd keeping the energy up, gave France an opening. And they took advantage. They cut a 13-point deficit early in the third quarter to six by that quarter’s end. Then, five, with 3:32 left. Then, three, on Victor Wembanyama’s offensive rebound dunk with 3:04 remaining. Bercy was berserk. The impossible dream, of avenging their 2021 loss to the U.S. in Tokyo, was within their sights.
“Down the stretch, Steph took over,” Kerr said. “He actually suggested in the timeout, ‘Let me run a clear side pick and roll with LeBron and we’ll clear the floor.’ I said OK, because I’ve seen this before, and it usually turns out well.”
Act I
USA 82, France 79, 3:04 remaining
Curry shot-fakes France’s Guerschon Yabusele, then rises right of the key from 26 feet, and, with Yabusele’s hands at his sides, drains a 3 to put the U.S. team back up by six. He gives the French fans the palms-down, calm-yourselves-down treatment on the way back up the court.
CURRY TIME. 🥶
A huge three to shift the momentum late. #ParisOlympics | 📺 NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/kDSOCr9bao
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
“Steph earned this, the last few weeks,” Kerr said. “The last couple of weeks, every day, the work ethic. I tell people all the time, when Kevin was with our team, my favorite part of practice with the Warriors was after practice, watching these two work. It’s not an accident that they’re able to do what they’re able to do down the stretch of games. The work, just watching these two guys, day after day after day, is really impressive. I’ve talked about LeBron, during this experience as well. When you see these guys behind the scenes, and how hard they work, how much they love the process of the work itself, it all makes sense that they’re as good as they are.”
Act II
USA 87, France 81, 2:10 remaining
This time, Curry shot-fakes Nicolas Batum, then steps to the side from 27 feet. “Bang,” as Mike Breen would say. As he runs back up court, Curry points to his chest and says something to the U.S. bench. It appeared he was saying, “They can’t guard me!” Maybe he said, “They can’t (bleeping) guard me!’”(Although, Curry doesn’t cuss much at all, really.) At any rate, it’s becoming clear that he’s correct, and the French can’t (bleeping) guard him.
Intermission
In which various Olympic teammates talk about the greatest shooter in NBA history …
LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers: “I’ve seen it before. Different uniform, though.”
Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns: “Out of body experience.”
Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves: “I was able to witness greatness. … Watching Steph? Hey, I was just telling him, ‘Boy, you crazy, bro.’ Shorty went crazy. I ain’t got nothing to say about it. He is who he is, you feel me?”
Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat: “I was kind of like, ‘What the f—?’ But, then I had to remember who was shooting it. And we’ve all seen him do incredible things like that.”
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers: “Like I said, it’s fun to be on (his) side. Big shots after big shots. And the level of difficulty of those shots, and the moment, it was tremendous.”
Act III
USA 90, France 84, 1:43 remaining
This time, it’s Nando de Colo in the crockpot. Curry, shot fake, pulls up … you know how this goes by now, right?
Cooked de Colo.
The U.S. is back up nine, with 1:18 to go. And Curry starts screaming — a primordial type of yell, that “Og,” living in Spain’s Atapuerca Mountains, may have screamed when the rocks he had been rubbing together for a week finally flinted, and there was fire, and Og could finally cook the mastodon he’d killed a week ago. Or, it could be the yell of a 36-year-old man who’d desperately wanted to be an Olympian for so long, and hadn’t been able to, but was finally doing so in the most amazing way possible in what will likely be the last two games of his Olympic career.
Act IV
USA 93, France 87, 0:55 remaining
France, a smart, veteran team, coached by a legend in Vincent Collet, now double-teams Curry, sending both Batum and Evan Fournier at him off the pick and roll. They’re “blitzing” him, in NBA parlance, trying to make him pass the ball to someone else. In addition, the shot clock, now the size of a small hovercraft placed on Curry’s back, was ticking down toward zero. But Curry goes behind his back, takes a dribble right of the key, and lets it fly, over both Batum’s and Fournier’s outstretched arms, from somewhere near Nice.
Splash.
“THE GOLDEN DAGGER!”
Steph Curry that is utterly ridiculous. 🤯#ParisOlympics | 📺 NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/8hIN8tgmfK
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
“Every shot you take, you think it’s going in,” Curry said. “That was at the end of a solid flurry of shots,” Curry said. “At the end of the day, all I saw was the rim. I didn’t see who was in front of me. I knew it was kind of a late-clock situation. That impressed me. I impressed myself, for sure. For sure.”
And he gave a whole nation the night-night, as he ran back up the floor. Good effort, France, good effort.
“Honestly, I told him, ‘No way you making that,’” Edwards said. “‘Cause he threw it up high. But, he cold. He cold.”
An aside: A France team with Nolan Traoré, a near-lock to be a top-five pick in the 2025 NBA draft after playing next season for the French team Saint-Quentin, running the point in 2028 for France in Los Angeles, with Wemby and Rudy Gobert and Bilal Coulibaly and Yabusele, and maybe Alexandre Sarr and Zaccharie Risacher and Tidjane Salaun by then … well, let’s just say that would be a hell of a rematch between the U.S. and Les Bleus. And if Embiid pulled an ultimate Heel Turn, a la Hogan at Bash at the Beach in ’96, and decided to play for France? Sacré Bleu!
Will Curry be in Los Angeles, at 40? I mean, Durant didn’t rule it out when asked, and he’s been playing for USA Basketball for 14 years. Who knows what Chef Curry can cook up next?
“It’s everything I imagined, and more,” Curry said of this, his first Olympic experience. “We all signed up for this mission, to continue USA Basketball’s dominance. Obviously, I understood it was going to be a really tough task, with some great teams that we were going to face. It’s a sense of relief, at the end, but it’s more like a sense of accomplishment, obviously knowing what we were able to do. I’ve seen the medal ceremonies at other events. I’ve seen (Durant) get all three of his. I’ve watched it and envisioned what it would feel like. It wasn’t really like knocking something off of my resume, it was more ’cause I haven’t experienced it yet, and not knowing what it was going to be like. … Everything was eye-opening, from start to finish.”
(Top photo of Stephen Curry: Christina Pahnke – sampics / Getty Images)
