The 2024 Olympic Games Paris wrapped up on Sunday, August 11th. In the total medal count, the United States dominated with 126 medals, 35 more than the next closest competing country in China.
USA dominated Paris with 126 total medals won -- 40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze -- with 65% of the medals being won by female competitors.
In terms of the gold medal count, however; the USA and China finished in a 40-40 deadlock. In fact, it took a stunning one-point victory from the usually-dominant Team USA Women's Basketball team over the home crowd favorite France to even achieve that deadlock.
Remarkably, both the men & women's basketball teams found themselves in an unprecedented type of hostile environment -- both teams landing in gold medal finals vs the hosting country's French squads.
France's Gabby Williams made a long jumper at the final buzzer that she hoped would tie the game. However, her feet were well in front of the three-point line on her heave, which gave USA the victory, 67-66.
Staying on the subject of Olympic basketball: I wrote previously about Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Team USA men's dramatic comeback vs Serbia in the semifinal round to land them in the Gold Medal game.
As great as Steph Curry in particular was in that semifinal game, pouring in 36 points & 9 threes, I personally didn't think for a second that he could do anything in Saturday's Gold medal game that would be better than what he accomplished on that Thursday vs Serbia.
But, the great players -- the showmen -- they just know how to raise the bar higher and higher.
Throughout Saturday's game, Team USA held a fairly comfortable lead for the first 3 quarters, with the margin bubbling between 9-to-12 points. Midway through the 4th, Team France, led by phenom & future basketball great Victor Wembanyama, staged their surge. With under 3 minutes to go, France cut USA's lead to just 3 points -- 82-79 -- and the crowd became thunderous in their support of the home team.
Thankfully, in the face of war, Team USA held possession of the world's most explosive nuclear weapon.
In what became a staple for Coach Kerr and USA's offense down the stretch, LeBron and Steph ran an action at the top of the key, as Steph set a pick and slipped to LeBron's left. James got it to Curry, Steph hit his defender with a jab to create space, elevated for the jumper, and, boom. Lead back up to 6 with 2:45 left as Steph gave a "calm down" emote to the USA contingent of the crowd.
With the lead still at 6 with 1:52 left, Steph splashed another three with two Frenchmen in his orbit to add 3 more points to the lead.
After France got three points of their own at the other end, Team USA standout Devin Booker drove the lane from the left corner and quickly swung it to the top of the key to... guess who? Curry caught it, pump-faked to lose the defender, BANG. The greatest shooter in the history of the game was on fire once again.
Real, rare video of Steph Curry moving around the court in Saturday's Gold Medal game.
Curry's final dagger was by far the most preposterous and audacious. USA held a 93-87 lead with under a minute to go as Steph jogged the ball across the half court stripe. France, as is customary when one singular guy is beating you, quickly sent a double team at Steph to force him to give the ball up to the weakside. Kevin Durant, who has seen both sides of Curry's patented killer flurries, rushed the ball back to Steph. Curry dribbled left, then crossed over to the right, and as another double team approached, shot a wild fadeaway three and NAILED IT. To quote NBC's play-by-play man Noah Eagle: A golden dagger.
Night night. PHOTO CREDIT: KYLE TERADA | USA TODAY SPORTS.
It was a remarkable finish for a remarkable team, led by three of the most remarkable talents that the world has ever seen in any sport. The Avengers achieved what they set out for Paris to do: place the United States back on the men's basketball throne.
The leaders of "The Avengers" -- Stephen Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant: pose with their new gold medals.
Much has been made of where this year's Olympic squad ranks among the greatest Team USA teams we've ever seen. On The Recess Bell Podcast, I gave my top 5 rankings of the best USA basketball squads ever on the men's side.
After this, the fun continued on the pod, but not without touching on some Olympic controversies first, such as the very strange & controversial matter of Jordan Chiles and her under-dispute bronze medal in the floor exercise gymnastics final & the matter of Steph Curry's wife Ayesha Curry in tears while holding her newborn son following an apparent altercation with Parisian citizens.
Safe to say, the city of Paris will not be receiving an Olympic hosting bid of a long, long time.
The next controversy to follow this one was the Noah Lyles/COVID situation, as the American Lyles raced the 200m final 4 days after winning the 100m final and, more notably, just 2 days after testing positive for COVID-19. This led to the debut of a new segment: Defense Attorney David, as Kory David stepped up versus the rest of the guys in a vigorous defense of the track star.
Also on the pod: the debut of a new game show -- the TRB pod original 'BLACK OR WHITE?', where I quizzed Kory, Justin Greenberg and Erik Williams by giving out 6 racially ambiguous names of various Olympic champions. Their job? To deduce whether each athlete was a black athlete or a white athlete.
Where else are you going to get a Olympic Games recap with this much fun attached?
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