PARIS — The original “Dream Team” set the gold standard for Olympic basketball but today’s American stars face a tougher test in Paris, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry said on Thursday, with some of the NBA’s biggest names hailing from around the globe.
The U.S. team had to contend with just nine international players from the NBA on the road to gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games. In Paris, dozens of athletes with NBA experience can be found in national teams from Germany to South Sudan.
Asked which player they predict will be the biggest star in Paris – outside Team USA – Golden State Warriors’ sharpshooter Curry said: “I think you’ve got some options.”
There is Serbia’s giant Nikola Jokic, who picked up his third MVP honor last season with the Denver Nuggets, and the Milwaukee Bucks Greek phenomenon Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Local fans will be sure to give a hero’s welcome to France’s seven-foot, four-inch NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama, who entered the league as one of the most highly anticipated first overall draft picks and has lived up to the hype.
“Our game is global now, man. So all these guys are huge stars in their own ways,” said Durant, the all-time leading scorer at the Olympics for the United States.
“They’re all the best of the best in the world.”
An Olympic tune-up match this month against South Sudan provided an excellent reminder that the U.S. team must stay alert, as the world’s newest country lost to the 16-times Olympic champions by one point, 101-100.
“Everybody’s a contender. Everybody that’s amongst the 12 teams here are here for a reason and believe that they can win,” Curry told reporters.
First-time Olympian Curry said he would benefit from the experience of his teammates and appeared on good terms with Durant, with whom he won two of his four NBA titles for Golden State before a tense split saw Durant join the Brooklyn Nets.
“I know how hard he works because I’ve seen it up close and personal for those three years, and I know the level that he’s trying to get to competitively,” said Curry.
“You thrive off of that, that preparation to give you confidence like, ‘Hey, you know, we’re here for business, but we’re also here to continue to learn from each other’.”
—Reporting by Amy Tennery in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris
