If there are two takeaways from Team USA’s men’s and women’s gold medal success in the 2021 Olympics, they are that Kevin Durant from the New York Nets might be the best Olympic player ever and that includes Michael Jordan and LeBron; and the women’s senior basketball team, which has now won seven consecutive gold medals, has established a dynasty that will be surpassed.
This was a year of uncertainty with Covid-19, the Orlando bubble for both the NBA and WNBA and two shortened NBA seasons
The USA men’s team, playing without a full compliment of players because of a late ending NBA finals and the pandemic, before they arrived in Japan, lost two exhibitions to Nigeria and Australia in Vegas and a pool round game to France. The more cohesive women’s team lost two exhibition games to the WNBA All Stars and Australia in Vegas.
But the men had the 6-10 Durant, who played in three cycles and scored 30 points in the 2012 and 2016 gold medal games, shined the brightest in biggest moments. Durant scored 29 points in a 87-82 gold medal victory over France Saturday and rescuing his team from offensive lapses in the first halves of medal round games and was a big enough magnet to attract enough good NBA players to get to the finish line.
This latest USA team will be viewed as persistent, but it never be viewed as great. That term is reserved for the 1992 Dream Team with future Hall of Fame inductees with coaches like Chuck Daly, Lenny Wilkens and Mike Krzyzewski and players like Jordan, Bird, Magic, Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, Scotty Pippen, Chris Mullin David Robinson the first year FIBA allowed NBA players to compete and Team USA won all its game by an average margin of 42 points; the 2008 unbeaten Redeem team with prime time superstars Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh and Chris Paul that averaged 106.3 points, surrendered just 78.4 points a game and defeated Spain, 118-107, in the gold medal game in Beijing or the 1960 team with college stars Jerry Lucas, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson and Walter Bellamy that was coached by Pete Newell and scored over 100 points in five of eight games and had an average margin of victory over over 40 points before the dawn of globalization or the arrival of the great Soviet teams in the 70s and 80’s.
But times have changed. There are over 120 international players participating in the NBA and the talent gap between the best European teams, Argentina during the golden era and Australia and a less than complete USA men’s team has become closer than ever.
the USA finished sixth in the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis and, after a 2004 Olympic team coached by Larry Brown lost 10 players including Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O’Neal from a undefeated 2003 tournament of Americas team that shot 56 percent and had a 30 point margin of victory, Team USA was left to to scramble and the presence of Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson and rising stars like James Dwyane Wade and Anthony lost three games and weren’t able to overcome the talent and experience of gold medalist Argentina, a cohesive South American team with Manu Ginobili that played pre-Olympic 44 exhibition games and defeated Team USA, 89-81, in the semi-finals, relegating America to bronze medal status.
When managing director Jerry Colangelo and Krzyzewski began to restore American prestige in the sport, they recruited a core group of stars who were willing to commit to playing three years with the senior team. James, Anthony and Bryant wound up playing in both 2008 and 2012, when Team USA had four first team All NBA choices in Durant, James, Bryant and Paul, made 129 threes and averaged 115 points per game.
Since then, there have not been a continuity of talent.
Some of the stars like James and Steph Curry felt they wanted their summers off after exhausting NBA playoff runs.
There were only three players– James, center Anthony Davis and an older Anthony– who played for Team USA in 2012 and only two on the 2021 team– Durant and Draymond Green– who played in 2016. And it’s getting harder to put together a cohesive team with limited pre-Olympic practice time, especially since international contenders like France, Australia and Spain maintain the bulk of their rosters for upwards to 10 years.
Team USA coach Greg Popovich made a decision to built his team around shooting and quickness, sacrificing the size most international teams enjoy with mixed results. But the USA had Durant to bail a them out when they shot blanks from the three in the first half of two games against France and guard Jrue Holiday from the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks, who was the best on the ball defender on the team, to lock down hot shooters like Patty Mills or Australia and Evan Fourier of France. But it is unlikely Durant will play another cycle, leaving USA basketball to hope young stars like Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker and Bam Adebayo return to play bigger roles in the 2024 games in Paris.
the US women’s team was another story, creating their own dynasty, winning their seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal. The women have been close to untouchable in this tournament since 1996. And Dawn Staley’s team was no different in the medal round, blowing away Australia, Serbia and Japan.
Unlike the men’s team, Team USA women, which returned six core players for the 2016 gold medal team in Rio, had an unmatched front line with 6-9 post Brittney Griner, 6-5 center A’ja Wilson, versatile wing Brenna Stewart, 6-4 center Tina Charles and 6-6 Sylvia Fowles, future Hall of Fame inductee who had the depth and world class talent to compare with any team in the history of the sport, including the Soviet Union’s 1976 and 1980 Olympic team with 7-0 Uljana Semanova. The backcourt consisted of veterans Sue Bird and Diana Tarausi, who won historic fifth gold medals. Bird and Tarausi, who have dominated their positions on the world stage for years, were 41 and 39 years old but understood winning the the culture of USA basketball better than anyone in the history of USA basketball.
This was likely the last hurrah for both of them as well as the 35-year old Fowles and the soon to be 33-year old Charles.
But with Griner, Wilson, Stewart and guard Chelsea Gray and the possible return of Staley, they should have enough to maintain gold medal status as long as they can find a point guard to replace Bird and her basketball IQ.
