Jammed into the drama, exhilarating finish and near-shock of Team USA’s escape against Serbia Thursday in the Paris Olympics men’s basketball semifinals sits two truths that, at first blush, might feel a bit counterintuitive.
The first is that Team USA, despite the 95-91 win and its accompanying berth to Saturday’s gold medal game against France, is a flawed-if-destined champion, with an emphasis on “flawed.” That a team with such an overwhelming force of talent would need to scrabble and claw like that at the end to win — despite stellar outings from Steph Curry, Joel Embiid and LeBron James — points to problems that may not ultimately matter but exist nonetheless.
And that very much could matter in the years ahead, as international basketball becomes even more daunting.
And the second is that Nikola Jokic, despite losing, delivered a stunning indicator of his historic greatness that begs for a reevaluation of whether we properly respect his place in the game’s history — despite the widespread belief he is its best current player, despite the fact he’s won three of the last four MVP Awards, despite the championship he won last summer and those many think he’s likely to win in the future.
Let’s start with Team USA.
The slow start and shocking hole Team USA found itself in Thursday is simply baffling. At one point, our team, America’s team, was down 17 points to a Serbian squad that has very, very few NBA players. Despite Curry’s red-hot shooting en route to 36 points. Despite Embiid, shaking off ample criticisms of his Olympic run with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Despite LeBron James notching a rare Olympic triple-double.
Team USA was still, for large stretches of the game, discombobulated, poorly functioning, and, yes, overmatched.
Jayson Tatum did not play, again, reigniting the head-scratching rotations that head coach Steve Kerr has deployed at times. The slow start, too, seemed to invite a disaster that, while it did not ultimately happen, certainly came close.
These Olympic games are 40 minutes instead of the 48…
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