The Men’s Basketball Gold Medal Game between the United States of America and France this summer was not only one of the sporting events of the year, but of the generation, as it saw three of the top 15ish NBA players of all time — LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry — pulls up their Hall of Fame bootstraps for one final patriotic hurrah.
Those Olympic games, as so many of the iconic NBA games of the last 15-20 years, were defined by LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry, who each contributed with what they each do best, respectively.
James was doing a little bit of everything, everywhere, all at once. Durant was cooking the French in isolation looks. And Curry hit bonkers 3-point shots that could likely only be pulled off by him and him alone.
Steph Curry’s shot over the two helpless French defenders in the final became *the* iconic play of Team USA’s gold medal run, so naturally, the Golden State Warriors legend was asked about the moment during the NBA’s media day earlier this week, leading to a hilarious anecdote about seeing the reactions of Bron and KD as he took matters into his own hands.
“THE GOLDEN DAGGER!”
Steph Curry that is utterly ridiculous. 🤯#ParisOlympics | 📺 NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/8hIN8tgmfK
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
“You have LeBron and KD over on the other side,” a reporter pointed out to Curry. “And I think they’re open…”
“You think?” Curry joked. “They were open. 100% open.”
The reporter then asked what Curry was thinking knowing LeBron and Durant were “just fine” with him taking that shot, which prompted the recollection of the moment from Curry.
“I wouldn’t say that, either, because I read body language pretty well and I watched it back. I got trapped, I through it to K — Bron was open on the wing, on the swing-swing — but K threw it back to me, so when he did that, that’s when your muscle memory takes over,” Curry explained.
“I’m already in motion, doing my move, whatever. I see the two guys, but I’m already in rhythm, as long as I get it off, I feel like I’m gonna make it. But I see both of them as soon as I’m shooting the hands up and they both went like *this* [making eyes darting back-and-forth face], they didn’t expect me to shoot it,” the greatest 3-point shooter of all time continued.
“I’m sure they were ready for a pass back to the weak side. As soon as it went in, seeing Bron do the gesture, seeing the guys on the bench. K threw his head back, kind of in amazement. That was kind of the beauty of that team, too, because the energy that we showed, and the emotion that we showed: in the Serbia game, on the comeback, and down the stretch in the Olympics, like it mattered to everybody to get that done and everybody knew the sense of urgency in the moment. It was a memory for a lifetime, for sure.”
Curry and the Warriors — without longtime backcourt mate Klay Thompson, who signed with the Dallas Mavericks — will begin their 2024/25 season on Wednesday, October 23 against the Portland Trail Blazers.
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