Curry says USA foes now are a marked improvement from Dream Team era

Team USA’s Stephen Curry takes a selfie with a fan after an exhibition basketball match between Serbia and the United States at the USA Basketball Showcase, ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic basketball tournament, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Team USA skipper Stephen Curry reached for a candid response when asked which country he is most excited to play against in the Olympic Games in Paris.

“Whoever’s in the gold medal game,” he said in a press conference ahead of the Summer Games’ opening revelries along the Seine.

And so 12 nations began their journey towards that spot on Saturday (Manila time), while Team USA begins its quest this Sunday at 11:15 p.m. against a Serbian side led by former NBA champion and three-time Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokić.

The Americans, led by this generation’s luminary stars in Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant, shoot for the United States’ fifth-straight gold medal in the tournament that it has ruled for a record 16 times.

And while they know they are heavy favorites, both Curry and Durant are aware that their crew is going against a field whose quality has been at its highest.

“Did you see that thing where they said the [1992] Dream Team played against nine NBA players?” Curry asked Durant in the half-an-hour chat with reporters covering the global showcase.

“Yeah, we’re playing against 65, 64 NBA players now. And they’re all the best of the best in the world,” the latter said.

There are, to be exact, 51 active NBA players scattered throughout the field in the Paris Summer Games. That is a 46-player increase from what the renowned Dream Team tackled during the Barcelona Olympics.

“Our game is global now, man. So all these guys are huge stars in their own ways, you know?” said Durant.

Seven NBA players

Serbia, whom the Americans battle in Group C play at Pierre Mauroy Stadium in the French city of Lille, will feature seven NBA players on its roster. The Eagles are also fielding an entirely different squad from the one that won silver during the World Cup held in Manila last year.

Team USA handily beat Serbia, 105-79, in Abu Dhabi over a week ago but that friendly hardly captured the Eagles’ true capabilities with Serbian skipper Bogdan Bogdanović and Nikola Jović sitting out the game and Jokić playing through minutes restriction.

Curry feels that Team USA’s success hinges on how swiftly the squad—which also features reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid—makes on-the-fly adjustments throughout the meet that will run until Aug. 10.

“You’ve got to be able to adapt quickly. You’ve got to be able to bring your egos of who we are as individual players, but also let them go, knowing it doesn’t matter who’s the man scoring that particular night,” he said.

“When you’re on the floor, you’re asked to do a certain thing and do it to the best of your ability to play with energy. And as Team USA, if we do that, usually good things happen. So trying to lock into that and take advantage of it every single day is important.” —DENISON REY A. DALUPANG