Takeaways from Team USA’s Gold Medal Run
Team USA’s basketball team took home gold for the fifth straight Olympics. Here are some takeaways from this summer’s run. This run was not as dominant as the previous Olympics. Team USA had to overcome a 13-point deficit against Serbia to advance to the Gold Medal game. It took heroics from LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Joel Embiid to edge out the Serbians. In the Gold Medal game, a Curry avalanche finally put France away in the waning minutes.
The world has certainly closed the gap on Team USA and when Team USA gathers its best players: James, Durant, Curry, and amongst others, Team USA flexes its muscles. Team USA showed how deep the team is. When the two best players on last season’s Eastern Conference Finals teams, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton - are receiving “DNPs” virtually every other game, it shows how deep this roster is. It’s essentially nine first options from the NBA on one team.
For players like James, Durant, and Curry, the Gold Medal caps off what is potentially their last hardware of winning basketball. For players like Tatum, Anthony Davis, and Jrue Holiday, the Gold Medal is another piece of hardware added to their case for the Hall of Fame. For a player like Derrick White, he can make a case as one of the best role players ever with a gold medal, an NBA championship, and appearances on the All-Defensive team. For the rest of Team USA, the Gold Medal is something that will hopefully kickstart a line of winning hardware that includes the elusive NBA championship.
In fact, the other five players - Haliburton, Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo, and Embiid have had some deep playoff runs. Haliburton and Edwards are coming off their first conference finals appearance in their young career while Booker and Adebayo combined for three Finals appearances. In the words of James: the Avengers. That’s how he described Team USA. One thing is for sure is that as Team USA heads back home, these players will be going at it once the NBA season starts in October.
