Olympic basketball offers a special opportunity to help top NBA stars become teammates, actually competing together instead of playing in friendly and entertaining matches.
Having never competed at the Olympics, Stephen Curry is thoroughly enjoying the experience and appears extremely excited. Besides names like LeBron James, Joel Embiid or young talents like Anthony Edwards, Curry mentioned a special teammate, Kevin Durant.
After the recent 110-87 victory over Serbia, Stephen Curry shared with reporters how exciting he felt being on the field with the US team stars:
“I have never been on the field at an Olympic match and I have to admit that the feeling it brings is really great. In addition to playing for the national flag, one thing I really like is being teammates with people I have never been on the same team with.”
Speaking more about Kevin Durant, Curry said he was happy to reunite with his former teammate after 6 years: ” I’m quite happy to be in the same locker room with Kevin Durant again and it’s always great to see KD shine.” so”.
“I spent 3 years as a teammate with KD and know how excellent he is. Being reunited with the US team is a special thing that I am very grateful for.”
Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant spent 3 years as teammates in the Golden State Warriors shirt, almost destroying the entire NBA during 3 seasons from 2016 to 2019.
The current coach of the US team at the 2024 Olympics, Steve Kerr, was also the captain of the Warriors at that time. He led his two students and the home team at Oracle Arena to 131 victories in 168 matches (77.9% win rate).
This is also the most glorious period in the careers of both Curry and Durant when winning two consecutive years (2017 and 2018). The Golden State Warriors returned to the NBA Finals in 2019 but collapsed after two injuries to Kevin Durant (ruptured Achilles tendon) and Klay Thompson (ruptured knee ligament).
Talking more about the match, Stephen Curry highly appreciated the favorable result against Serbia. A victory in the opening match will greatly help the US team’s morale at the Olympics.
“The victory over Serbia gave the whole team confidence, an image of uniformity and unity. Importantly, we will try to build to continue to improve in the coming matches ,” said captain Curry.
“Hopefully we will play all 6 matches at the Olympics and win them all to get the gold medal. Every match is important and we will not take any match or opponent lightly.”
Highlights of the match between America and Serbia | Paris 2024 Olympic men’s basketball group stage
The US team’s next match will take place at 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 1. Their opponent is South Sudan, the team that almost beat the US team in a series of friendly matches before the 2024 Olympics.