PARIS — The USA Basketball experience can bring together younger players who look up to aging icons, turn former storied rivals into co-captains and foster future NBA pairings that can reshape the league.
This iteration of Team USA that is here in Paris, preparing to defend the gold medal once again, beginning with Sunday’s game against Serbia (11:15 a.m. ET), also is about reunions.
Chiefly, the two leading men from the last team to win consecutive NBA titles are again teammates for the first time in five years — since that moment in the summer of 2019 when Kevin Durant decided he didn’t want to play on Steph Curry’s team anymore.
“You just pick up where you left off,” Durant said Thursday during a joint news conference with Curry for the Paris Games, which begin Friday night with the opening ceremony on the River Seine.
“I think that familiarity only helps us take advantage of this experience,” Curry added.
Though Durant has yet to play for the Americans this summer because of a calf injury, he has returned to practice and has otherwise been with Team USA every step of the way, from training camp in Las Vegas through the team’s arrival Wednesday in France. He participated in the team’s scrimmage in a Parisian suburb and looked spry, with the team’s social media account showing Durant dunking in traffic.
🇺🇸 #USABMNT buckets in Paris! pic.twitter.com/WZTcAVw3aW
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 25, 2024
Durant is questionable to play against Serbia. It is unclear what his role will be when he is in uniform — does he start next to Curry or come off the bench? — but every time the two have been on the same team, the result has been magic.
Curry and Durant were first teammates with USA Basketball in 2010, when they were part of the gold-winning group at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey. No player has enjoyed a FIBA competition quite like Durant’s 2010 world championships, in which he led the Americans with a record (men or women) 22.8 points per game. Curry played a smaller role on that team but shot 7-of-19 from 3-point range in eight games.
Durant joined Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016. The Warriors had already been to the previous two NBA Finals, winning the first and narrowly losing the second to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Durant’s addition made the Warriors an unstoppable force, cementing in stone what, for now, stands as the NBA’s last dynasty.
Should opponents double Durant, a former league MVP and scoring king, or Curry, arguably the best shooter ever to live? It’s the kind of choice Olympic opponents would have to make with Durant on the court, made even more stressful because of the other stars who would surround Curry and Durant.
It was a similar situation on the Warriors, an All-Star team, basically, with Green and Thompson on the court and a brilliant cast of supporting players. They won the next two titles, losing just one of nine games against the Cavs in the 2017 and 2018 finals.
The Warriors went back to the finals again in 2019, but the season was one of turmoil inside the Warriors’ locker room, due in part to Durant’s pending free agency. When the playoffs arrived, Durant suffered a calf injury late in the second round and was out until Game 5 of the finals, when he tore his Achilles.
As expected, Durant left Golden State as a free agent, joining Kyrie Irving on the Brooklyn Nets.
“You compete against guys, and like you said, we have histories as teammates and won at a high level,” Curry said when asked to address his reunion with Durant. “First, it’s the respect of what everybody’s done in their careers. When you compete against people, you play with them, you see ’em in different aspects throughout your NBA journey. You learn a lot about people. And that familiarity only helps us in this situation because everybody’s going to approach it the right way, prepare themselves mentally, physically to be able to hoop and come with the right energy of, ‘We just trying to win.’
“And then I know how hard he works. I’ve seen it up close and personal for those three years, and I know the level that he’s trying to get to competitively to be his best self and why he’s the all-time leading scorer in Olympic history.
“So you thrive off of that preparation to give you confidence. Like, hey, we’re here for business, but we’re also here to continue to learn from each other.”
Kevin Durant’s looming return could unlock a new level of chemistry for an American team in dire need of it. (Arun Sankar / AFP via Getty Images)
The NBA is used to big breakups. It happens, and so long as the reunion isn’t, like, the next day — if Thompson were on Team USA now, after just leaving the Warriors for the Dallas Mavericks, it would be awkward — the re-pairing of players like Curry and Durant is seamless. They long ago discussed the feelings wrapped up in winning together, the drama from 2018-19, and Durant’s departure.
There is the added buffer of Durant having played for Team USA at the last Olympics in Tokyo, when Steve Kerr was an assistant coach. Kerr is, of course, the longtime coach of the Warriors and the current head coach for Team USA.
Durant called it the “cool part of the Olympics,” for the Americans to have situations where he and Curry had already played together, and he had previously played under Kerr. He said those circumstances help Team USA mitigate the gap it has in team chemistry against other countries whose players are teammates every summer on their national teams.
The Americans have, this summer, at times said they were at a disadvantage when it comes to continuity. It’s an explanation heard every summer when Team USA loses or narrowly avoids defeat. But numerous relationships on the U.S. Olympic team transcend this summer.
Consider:
Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum and Derrick White are all on the Boston Celtics, who just won the NBA championship.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis are on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Durant and Devin Booker are teammates with the Phoenix Suns.
Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton were on USA Basketball’s World Cup team last summer.
Bam Adebayo stars for the Miami Heat, and Erik Spoelstra, a U.S. assistant and head coach in Miami, is the only coach he’s ever played for (in the NBA).
James previously played under Spoelstra in Miami. Another U.S. assistant, Tyronn Lue, was James’ coach on the Cavs for all those finals against the Warriors.
“You see Bam and his coach here, LeBron and all these guys he played for here,” Durant said. “So that familiarity is going to help us out going forward, and hopefully we get some good results from it.”
Much has been made about Curry and James playing together for the first time. Also, Durant is Edwards’ favorite player, and for weeks Edwards has been looking forward to sharing the court with him as teammates.
As for any super teams that come out of the 2024 Olympics, like the way the Heat’s former big three of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh formed during their time spent on USA Basketball, it is too early to say. Haliburton and Edwards already recruited each other to join their NBA teams as USA teammates last summer — instead, they signed max contract extensions with the Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves, respectively. Maybe later on that one.
As for the here and now, these USA players and coaches know each other more than enough to finish the job ahead.
“We have another level,” Kerr said Thursday. “I think we have another two levels that we can get to, but it’s a collaboration always.”
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(Top photo of Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant: Michael Kappeler / picture alliance via Getty Images)