That was one of the best basketball games I've witnessed. There is certainly a lot to be said about the FIBA style vs. NBA product, however, the sheer storylines, talent, and passion on display were remarkable.
I'm also thankful to the Peacock App which allowed basketball junkies like myself to watch as many hoops, regardless of country, during the 2024 Olympics.
Before sharing some rather quick thoughts, I will just say that we do need to drop the tired sports talk and culture we currently have. Just appreciate Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and LeBron James while they grace a basketball court. Appreciate it. We won't have it for much longer.
Yes, LeBron James is absolutely amazing (haters, keep your buts, however, and tired Jordan comparisons to yourself). But have we really wrapped our collective thought process that this dude is 40 years old?!
In the words of one of my favorites, Gus Johnson, Kevin Durant is just "puuuuuuuuuure"
And speaking of Durant, it says a lot that with so much talent on the floor in that game, HE was the one with the ball in his hands.
Speaking of special, Nikola Jokic is a beast, and likely the best basketball player in the world, right now. Don't at me. I'm not sure you can replace him with anyone on God's green earth and Serbia plays that well.
Bojan Bogdanovic got under my skin as a Knicks fan when he torched us in that 2021 first-round matchup with my Knicks. He played well tonight. And yeah...he awoke a beast with his antics. Should've just stayed humbl...errr, melo, Bojan! See what I did there!
There is no doubt about it. The USA can win Gold on Saturday but the fact is there, the rest of the world has not just caught up, but there here.
I enjoy the FIBA style of play. It's different. Most notably, I prefer the physicality and the removal of the underhandedness and "crafty hunting" we see in the NBA. However, it's also not lost on me that we would collectively all have something to say if we watched this style for 82 games plus playoffs each year. What's wrong with having both styles?
There's a purity to the Olympic experience for these guys. They're playing together. They're playing together with guys they're used to competing against, but the fact that it is such a brief competition allows all these guys to just commit to winning each game and commit to each other. And there's just not a lot of frankly NBA BS. It's just go out and play and win and they're all together.
- USA Men's 5x5 Basketball Head Coach, Steve Kerr
Joel Embiid deserves his flowers for his play yesterday. We finally saw the Jokic vs. Embiid battle we've missed out on in the NBA for some time, and it was awesome. One notch for the FIBA style is that it does bring back the elite big man to the contest and eliminates so many of the "position-less" basketballs we've seen flood NBA sets and lineups.
Because we have to find a topic to shout loudly at, the Jayson Tatum protests need to stop. At the same time, so does the slander.
And finally, this may sound super cheesy, but for those two and a half hours, it genuinely felt like many were rooting collectively for our nation. Or at the least, I imagine and hope so.
That felt good. Go USA!