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Olympics basketball winners and losers 2024: Stephen Curry cements legacy; Jamal Murray's worrying slump
By Stephen Noh,
20 hours ago
As expected, the United States took down gold in a wildly entertaining men's basketball Olympics tournament.
The USA's roster was simply too stacked to beat, but the past two weeks featured much more than American dominance. There were some brilliant individual performances from a multitude of players on different teams, including the USA.
Here are the biggest winners and losers from the Olympics and what it might mean for the upcoming NBA season.
Curry's Warriors probably aren't going to win the championship next season, but he showed that he's still one of the top players in the NBA, scoring 36 and 24 points in Team USA's final two games.
Curry's four 3s in the final three minutes of the gold medal game will stand as one of the top moments of his career. The last of those was a typical shot for him, falling backward over great defense to break the hearts of his opponents.
The USA needed Curry when both games got tight, and he came through in a major way . This summer gave him a nice cherry on top of his legacy — the Olympic gold was the last thing missing from his trophy case.
At the age of 39, LeBron was still unfathomably the best player for Team USA. His passing vision was remarkable. His behind-the-back pass to Devin Booker in the final was quintessential LeBron.
He proved that he's still a terrific scorer, too. Nobody could stop him when he was going downhill, and he overpowered everyone in the post.
LeBron should still be an All-NBA player next season. Even better for Lakers fans is that Anthony Davis also looked terrific defensively and was even able to stretch out to 3 during this tournament.
Durant took over the record for the all-time leading scorer in USA Olympic history during the quarterfinal game. In some of the biggest moments, he reminded us that nobody is stopping him one-on-one.
Durant's isolation jumper down the stretch of the USA's white-knuckle victory over Serbia was the biggest bucket of the game.
Victor Wembanyama
Wembanyama's team might have lost the gold medal game, but it wasn't because of him. He scored a game-high 26 points on 57.9 percent shooting from the field and looked completely unstoppable at times.
It is inexplicable how a player who is 7-4 moves like this:
It is remarkable that Wembanyama is doing all of this at only 20 years old. He was the best defender in the tournament and one of the best scorers.
Giannis didn't have a great team around him. He still willed Greece into the knockout round, leading the entire tournament with 25.8 points per game. He seemingly never missed, hitting 67.8 percent of his shots. He looked like the best player in the world, which is great news for the Bucks given that the top of the East got even better this offseason.
Guerschon Yabusele
Yabusele got a highlight that he will be talking about for the rest of his life, dunking right through James in the gold medal game . He was France's second-best player behind Wembanyama, using his massive size to bully everyone and scoring 20 points in that final game.
The former Celtic wasn't able to stick in the NBA, but he may get another look after showing that he can hang with the best of them.
The Canadians were expected to be Team USA's biggest challenger in this tournament. Instead, they were eliminated by France in the quarterfinals.
Murray was one of the root causes of the team's struggles, hitting just 29.0 percent of his shots for the tournament and averaging a measly 6.0 points per game. That included a brutal 3-of-13 performance with three turnovers in Canada's final game against France.
The struggles for Murray couldn't come at a worse time. He did hit some game-winners in last season's NBA Playoffs, but he wasn't great there either. He's eligible for a four-year, $209 million extension. While that was at one time looking like a no-brainer, the Nuggets have to be more reluctant on what they should do after his extended slump.
Rudy Gobert
Gobert was supposed to be the co-star of France's team. Instead, he was mostly a non-factor.
Gobert played just 21 minutes combined in France's final three games, including a 12-minute performance in the gold medal game in which he scored only two points. His minimized role came due to a variety of factors. The biggest was French coach Vincent Collet simply believing that they could play better without him.
Gobert has always had his fair share of critics, including Draymond Green, who was there in person to watch France lose. This Olympic performance will give his haters even more ammo to work with.
Tatum was coming off a season in which he won a championship and earned First Team All-NBA honors, but he didn't even enter two of Team USA's six games.
Tatum did get some more opportunity in the gold medal game, but he was ineffective in his 11 minutes and forced Steve Kerr to sub him out again. He picked up two personal fouls on defense and scored only two points on offense.
Some thought that this tournament would serve as a passing of the torch, with Tatum taking over for the older guard. Instead, he watched most of it from the bench.
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