Team USA men’s basketball forward and all-time leading scorer, Carmelo Anthony, got emotional in his post-game interview after the gold medal game in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday afternoon.
“This is it for me,” Anthony told NBC, after taking a moment to gather himself as tears began to fill his eyes. “I’ve seen the worst and I’ve seen the best, and here I am three gold medals later.”
Anthony finished his Olympic career at the top, with a 96-66 flattening of the Serbian national basketball team on Sunday afternoon. With that win, the United States has now won three-straight Olympic gold medals in men’s basketball. However, some critics have argued that this year’s Olympic team was weaker than U.S. basketball teams of the past.
After superstars such as Lebron James, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook and Kobe Bryant opted not to play this year in Rio, the team had to rely on younger members to carry the workload. After squeaking by Serbia 94-91 and edging France 100-97 in the preliminary rounds, it appeared that the U.S. might not be the governing force of Olympic basketball that it had proved itself to be in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Guard Klay Thompson mentioned that the end result is the only thing that mattered.
“The game was a lot closer than it needed to be there down at the end, but it was still a great win, we’re 5-0 and that’s all that matters,” Thompson told NBC.
Thompson lit up the French national team with 30 points, including a whopping seven 3-pointers. However, once the U.S. was in the quarterfinals of the tournament, it seemed that it had turned a corner. In the quarterfinal game against Argentina, the U.S. went on an unprecedented 27-2 run in the second quarter that ultimately doomed its opponent. The game ended as a rout, with the final tally being 105-78.
In the semifinals on Friday, the U.S. knew it had to be at the top of its game again, as its opponent was none other than Spain, the team it had defeated in the previous two Olympic finals. At the end of a grueling game, the United States again came out on top, 82-76.
With the win, the U.S. was on its way to another gold medal contest, this time against a tough and determined Serbian national team, a team that had only lost to the U.S. by three points earlier in the tournament. With critics in the rear view mirror and a fierce opponent directly ahead, the U.S. took to the court on Sunday afternoon.
The result was a snoozefest. Forward Kevin Durant led the team in scoring with 30 points and added four assists, and the U.S. absolutely trounced the Serbian team on its way to a 96-66 blowout victory. Gold, once again. After the game, head coach Mike Krzyzewski commented on the team’s ability to improve when it mattered.
“We said it was a learning experience and our guys did learn,” Krzyzewski told NBC. “We put it to good practice. We kept getting better even though it didn’t necessarily reflect in the differential in the score, but we were getting better and more knowledgeable.”
Krzyzewski who, with the win, put himself at 88-1 all time for Team USA and now has three gold medals under his belt, was visibly ecstatic after the game. As anyone might guess, this gold from Rio might be just a little bit sweeter than the previous two, given the path to victory.
The U.S. men’s basketball team came into Rio with some new faces on their roster, and a chance to cement itself in history as one of the greatest dynasties of Olympic basketball ever. The team did not disappoint. With the win in the gold medal final, one mustn’t look any further than the scoreboard to see that the U.S. team finished the Olympic Games in Rio as it has so often been known to do: in a dominating fashion.
