Team USA was saved by the stars who defined a generation.
Fighting back from a 17-point deficit, Team USA avoided an all-time upset by riding the brilliance of Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant to a 95-91 win over Nikola Jokic and Serbia in the Olympic men’s basketball semifinals, setting up a showdown with host country France in Saturday’s gold-medal game.
Curry saved his breakout performance of the Olympics for the powerhouse’s most desperate moment, putting up 36 points (9-of-14 3-pointers) and eight rebounds, while James delivered a triple-double (16 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) and Durant made multiple clutch shots down the stretch to recover from a 13-point fourth quarter deficit.
The trio — which holds a combined 10 NBA title rings and seven league MVP awards — found each other immediately after the final buzzer, releasing emotional screams of joy and relief after a victory that instantly ranked among the most meaningful of their lives.
It was among the most riveting games the national team will ever play. It was an experience that has long felt unattainable.
With Serbia in control for the game’s first 30 minutes, led by the NBA’s reigning MVP, Team USA was thrown into the impossible role of underdogs for perhaps the first time in decades.
Since the Dream Team was conceived to avenge the country’s collegian-led failure of 1988, Team USA has been a near-unstoppable superpower, entering every Games with the expectation that gold is a given. Anything less is a tragedy.
Since 1992, the U.S. has won men’s basketball gold in every Olympics except 2004 — when Larry Brown decided Stephon Marbury, Richard Jefferson and Lamar Odom deserved more minutes than James and Carmelo Anthony — going 57-1 in seven gold-medal runs with NBA stars. The issue is even more pronounced on the women’s side, where Team USA has won seven straight gold medals and 59 straight Olympic games.
The teams are memorable, but the on-court moments rarely are. The most notable exception came for 2008’s “Redeem Team” in the gold-medal game against Spain, the stakes elevated by the embarrassment four years prior.
Thanks to the Dream Team, the game spread across the globe — the past six MVP awards have been captured by international stars (Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid). This year’s vote saw Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Slovenia’s Luka Doncic finish second and third — but America’s unparalleled top-to-bottom talent still creates the perception that almost every game is a 1-seed facing a 16-seed, sapping the excitement and entertainment of fans who are treated to blowouts or final scores considered too close for comfort.
It has been 32 years since the Summer Olympics ended without the United States owning the most medals. The most exciting victories remain the most unexpected.
The Miracle On Ice. Rulon Gardner. Cole Hocker joined the list this week, with his thrilling upset in winning the 1,500 meters. The American women’s bronze in rugby was treated like gold.
It is the Olympics — the corrupt, multi-billion-dollar boondoggle — at its most pure, elevating the anonymous to the unforgettable.
Team USA basketball, constructed of gods who are worshiped worldwide, who trek down from Mount Olympus to join the mortals every four years, can never travel that path.
It felt strange when James was selected as one of the country’s two flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony, an icon whose obituary might not mention his participation in the Games in the first 1,000 words.
Though it is impressive that James, 39, passed on a summer of downtime to chase gold for the fourth time, his return felt unnecessary, taking a roster spot that could’ve been used to help pass the torch and raise the profile of one of the league’s young stars.
Instead, Steve Kerr has made James the focal point of one of the most talented rosters ever assembled in sports, playing the legend a team-high 32 minutes on Wednesday, while giving Jayson Tatum — fresh off an NBA title and his third straight First Team All-NBA selection — another DNP.
The generation’s three biggest stars (all 35 or older) finally joined forces — a la Jordan, Magic and Bird — and saved Team USA from its first Olympic failure in two decades, producing an all-time moment this rotating juggernaut rarely ever experiences.
Another 40 minutes awaits.
Today’s back page
The scoreboard
Giants 14, Lions 3: It was Brian Daboll’s debut as the play-caller and a taste of the new kickoff rules, but because it’s preseason, the important thing was injuries — and the Giants had a scare with new backup quarterback Drew Lock. Maybe Tommy DeVito’s days as a Giant aren’t nearly done.
Mets 9, Rockies 1: That’s more like it. Pete Alonso slugged two homers to power the Mets to a cakewalk in the rubber game in Denver and into the third wild-card spot. Seattle is next.
Angels 9, Yankees 4: Nestor Cortes was shelled, Anthony Volpe left early due to foot pain and it rained in The Bronx. Not great, all around.
The finish line
Noah Lyles will leave Paris as the world’s fastest man, but wondering what could have been.
Lyles, who was in position to become the first American man since Carl Lewis (1984) to win gold in the 100 meters and 200 meters, earned bronze in his preferred 200 for the second consecutive Olympics, revealing after Thursday’s final that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
Lyles was the favorite in the race, but finished third with a time of 19.70 seconds, trailing Botswana’s Leslie Tebogo (19.46) and fellow American Kenny Bednarek (19.62).
Lyles looked severely fatigued following the race and received medical attention on the track before leaving on a wheelchair.
“My first thought was not to panic, thinking I’ve been in worse situations,” Lyles told NBC. “I’ve run with worse conditions, I felt, and we just took it day by day, trying to hydrate as much. Quarantined off. I’d definitely say that it’s taken its toll for sure, but I’ve never been more proud of myself for being able to come out here and getting a bronze medal — where last Olympics I was very disappointed [with a bronze medal], and this time, I couldn’t be more proud.”
Roughly an hour later, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone enhanced her legend by again winning gold in the 400-meter hurdles and setting a new world record (50.37) for the sixth time.
The New Jersey native is the first woman in Olympics history to win the event in consecutive Games.
The wrong kind of history
After 62 years, Casey Stengel’s Mets have some competition.
Shortly after the White Sox ended their AL record-tying 21-game losing streak, the team on Thursday fired manager Pedro Grifol, who had Chicago on pace to surpass the single-season record of 120 losses, set by the 1962 expansion Mets.
The White Sox, who are currently on pace to go 39-123, named former All-Star Grady Sizemore as their interim manager.
Sizemore, 42, joined the staff this season, having previously served as a minor league instructor with the Guardians and a minor league coach with the Diamondbacks. The White Sox also fired bench coach Charlie Montoyo, third-base coach Eddie Rodriguez and assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar.
Coming off MLB’s longest losing streak in 36 years, the White Sox (28-89) are more than 40 games out of first place in the AL Central.
General manager Chris Getz addressed the potential for the White Sox to claim ownership of the Mets’ infamous record.
“Well, it’s certainly something that we would like to avoid,” Getz said. “No one wants to be associated with a record like that.”
From NYC to Paris
What was born in The Bronx now belongs to the world.
More than 50 years after DJ Kool Herc created the template for breaking in a rec room party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the 2024 Olympics will unveil its final event Friday in Paris’ largest public square — one of the Games’ least likely inclusions ever.
On an Olympic stage filled with events that don’t look or feel like sports, breaking — long mislabeled as breakdancing — is a natural fit, reintroduced from its rise and fall during the 1980s, now reemerging with the DNA of gymnastics and an appeal to younger audiences, following its success at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.
“You wonder how the outside world is gonna receive us, but I think it’s gonna be amazing,” Team USA’s Logan Edra (B-girl Logistx) told Sports+ recently. “Just watch, people are gonna see how lit this s–t is and they’ll want to bring it back.”
The 32 breakers (b-boys and b-girls) will compete in 1-on-1 dance battles, with judges scoring the performances on creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity and musicality.
Among the four members of Team USA is Queens resident Sunny Choi, 35, who left a high-paying corporate position last year to commit to breaking full-time.
The Bronx also will be represented by Fairleigh Dickinson’s Salif Mane, who will compete for a medal in Friday’s triple-jump final.
Mane, the reigning NCAA champion from Fairleigh Dickinson, advanced to the final round after tying for the third-best jump in qualifying.
Before he takes the track, Mane will listen to a voicemail his late father left for him, just as the 22-year-old has done before every competition since his father died of COVID-19 in 2020.
Prospect of the day
Nick Morabito has etched his name in the record books.
The Mets outfielder notched two stolen bases on Thursday night, giving him a Brooklyn Cyclones single-season record with 38 swipes. Morabito was a force atop the lineup, reaching base three times with two singles and a walk, adding in two runs scored.
The No. 75 overall pick in the 2022 draft has hit .292 since his promotion to High-A in early May.
— Andrew Battifarano
What we’re reading 👀
🏀 On the day he was formally introduced as Knicks captain, Jalen Brunson explained the big $113 million decision he made when he signed his contract extension. “Winning trumps everything I do individually,” Brunson said.
🏈 Chuck Clark missed last season with injury soon after the Jets traded for him. That left the veteran safety wondering if the Jets would need him when he was healthy. Turns out they sure do, writes The Post’s Mark Cannizzaro.
⚾ Pete Alonso to the Cubs? The Post’s Jon Heyman “might not bet against” that free-agency outcome.
🏈 Ian O’Connor’s forthcoming Aaron Rodgers biography reveals a recent moment between the Jets quarterback and his estranged father.
⚽ Mauricio Pochettino is apparently the next guy who’s going to turn down the USMNT.
🥇 Grant Holloway, not to be denied.
