Well deserved MVP for LeBron. He was, by far, the most consistent Player throughout the Olympics. USA doesn't win these last 2 Games without Steph though.
All our real established stars played like real stars with Embiid inconsistently though with valuable moments. The up and coming stars not (as) much but still contributed. Halliburton seemed low man on totem pole for role playing minutes. And yeah Curry going HOF against Serbia and France won those games for us but LeBron IMO too deserved the MVP for the whole tournament with his consistency, big plays both sides of the ball, leadership and intelligence out there. That Guy is still the straw that stirs the drink among all the stars on the team …. to quote Reggie. Well f****** done King and AD played GREAT as well every game he was in except when handcuffed by BS ref calls. BEST of ALL they got their gold and were instrumental doing it and got out of the tough physical competition healthy with no injuries. Fears of sluggishness during early part of season “may” be overblown … just have to see how it goes and how a smarter coach handles their minutes while trying to win games.
That last move & 3 by Steph is about as good as Vinsanity's dunk (also against France). Probably the best shots in the history of US basketball. Also, Bron is better than a 40-year old has any right to be. He moves incredibly well. Finally, Noah Eagle as the play-by-play broadcaster for Team USA... wow. I know he's a Clipper announcer, but whatever. The kid's amazing.
the "old" guys still being the best players in these Olympics still says a lot about how much the NBA will miss them when they (Lebron, Steph, KD at least) all retire in a couple of years.
yeah, everybody laughs at us, phx, and gs because we'll probably be in play-in territory, but i promise minny, dallas, denver, and okc are not laughing. they're justifiably terrified of seeing any of those teams when the chips are down.
most likely the last major accomplishment we'll see lebron win in his career. same with curry and KD as well probably the reason they all decided to play together one last time
This was just so bizarre: they just fell apart and did so many stupid TO's or just dumb decisions when the play didn't run through Lebron. Great Olympics all around - Curry shot's were ridiculous at the end but wasn't that great till 4th. Only guy who can get away with not passing to an open Durant AND Lebron and shoot a contested 3 lol Ditto Wade and Noah Eagle - amazon should hire those two
Truth is, no Bron, no Curry, no KD and no AD and this team comes back without any medal. Guys like Tatum, Brown, Hali etc. would get smoked. Next OG is in LA... might be a disaster.
Leaders will be Tatum ( if he wants to play) , Ant , Ja and Zion . If France gets a Dennis type of guy as a guard , it's over
Not sure why Tatum not playing made so much noise .. His on ball skill set is redundant with the others stars and he's the worst off ball whereas guys like Holiday and White greatly fill in their role .
Playing on the Olympic team must be incredibly humbling and ego bruising for a few of these guys. They are faced with the fact they aren’t as good as they think they are.
i just think experience matters a lot more in the olympics/world championships. lebron really didn't look great the first time he played in the olympics, despite probably being a better nba player at the time. you could see edwards's inexperience just killing the team out there on both ends. that will change over time. the athleticism or lack thereof is less of an issue in international play, particularly, imo, because there's no defensive three seconds. so some athletic advantages are negated by that (and there are fewer exciting plays around the basket as a result, imo). so i don't know if you find out you're not as good as you thought you were, but you see that your skills don't translate everywhere exactly the same way. on team usa, you also find guys looking worse because they're star players playing roles with which they're unfamiliar. AD is the #1 offensive option for 90% of international teams (and #2 for the others). he's an afterthought/garbageman on team usa. not because he couldn't destroy jokic (he does whenever denver tries it without help) or milutinov (lol), but because we actually have better options! anyway, i think playing for team usa is harder than most fans realize, and winning when you're that heavily favored is psychologically difficult (ask the C Bags up until this year), particularly in a single elimination tournament, which is basically designed to introduce noise to your selection model. if team usa played serbia seven times, serbia would win once. but what if you happen to catch them on that one day in the medal round?!
He also just played like s*** when he did get minutes. This isn't an 82 game season where you let guys play through slumps. This team came together, practiced, showed up in Paris and won the gold in less than two months. Tatum was so deep in his head due to his shooting slump that he started passing up wide upon shots. There's no reason to throw him out there to work out his s*** given the condensed timeline and deep bench of guys playing better than him.
tatum should have handled it like other guys who didn't play much. be happy with the gold. you'll have another chance and will be a vet then.
I liked this USA Team. Not a lot of ego. Haliburton & Tatum had 2 DNPs & they both seemed all in… Even Edwards was cool playing 2nd string & (dare I say it) I actually enjoyed the way Booker played with this Team.
