By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
PARIS, France – During the Paris Olympics, Kevin Durant became Team USA’s leading scorer at the Olympics and also the first male athlete to win four gold medals in team sports.
However, she believes her Olympic legacy is not just the records, but much more: “Yes, I could see someone breaking that number. New records are meant to be broken. As I said, my goal every time I put on this jersey is to represent my country, my state, my street, my family name.”
According to Durant, the presence of the strongest possible American roster helps basketball in general: “It helped push the game forward. And I think since I’ve been here, we’ve done that. We build on what the Dream Team did in 1992 and carry that torch. And that was the main goal. And as far as playing in Los Angeles in 2028, who knows, we’ll see.”
KD leaves France with a great experience of the tournament, of Steph Curry and also of the team’s mentality: “The final was an incredible match, we had a great time here in Paris and Lille. There was a lot of support for basketball and fortunately I was able to do it again. I had a lot of fun and some things, like Steph’s shots, were an out of the ordinary experience.”
“I knew it was going to be special.”
According to Durant, there are no egos on Team USA: “There are so many great players in this program that they don’t even think about who the best player is, you just go out here and try to contribute as much as you can to the bigger picture, which is continuing to push our game around the world, and tonight was another example of that.”
Durant revealed that he had made his decision about Paris last year and that LeBron James was also instrumental in creating the team, which does not have an “official” nickname, but considering the talent and praise of everyone involved has been called “The Avengers”: “Grant (Hill) and Steve (Kerr), they came to Brooklyn and tried to get me to play in the World Cup. So I knew how important it was for us to be here in 2024 and I committed there. And I think last summer, Bron had started texting everyone, giving his opinion on who should be on the team and if everyone would play. And so when we started sending those texts, I knew we were all going to come together.”
According to Durant, having Steph Curry on board for the first time at the Olympics made everything work: “It was a special time. I knew Steph was going to play, as he had never been on an Olympic team before. He had won a couple of world championships, but he had never won an Olympic medal. So it was a no-brainer, especially when the two of them committed. And once the team was formed, I knew it was going to be special.”
