Team USA shows character in the 2024 Olympics from France:
Flash Thoughts:
Flash adores the game of basketball.
His association with the sport has accounted for 44 years reporting it through local media, 18 years coaching it in AAU girls basketball, being heard on WKUL FM for a long time and his venture of public address announcing with many games coming from Wallace State's Tom Drake Coliseum.
Now that the Summer Olympics are over and again in basketball, the United States is on the top.
Team USA showed how deep it is in talent with too many weapons as France could not slow them down with the Americans winning the Gold Medal Saturday 98 to 87.
On Sunday, the USA women was taken to the wire and able to outlast France 67 to 66. That is 8 consecutive Olympic gold medals for the women.
The American men have earned the gold in five consecutive Olympics after they failed to gain the top spot in 2004.
Showing how good both teams are vs. the world does make it on how basketball is adored in this being taken seriously for the production of good talented to be brought together and handled by good people with qualities of the game of basketball.
For Flash, the Americans are indeed a group of people that can make the game entertaining. However, my thoughts on many of them individually is not in the same aspect.
No doubt, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Seth Curry, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid and Jason Tatum play the game so well. Each has an interesting personality as to me, all are free spirited and not afraid to let it be known on and off the court.
When USA basketball decided to put together an Olympic team of professional players as it happened in 1992, that sent a message of they are not going to be pushed around by foreign teams that feel they can be much better than us.
The Dream Team of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Carl Malone, Isaiah Thomas, David Robinson, Chris Mullen and John Stockton was a great group to form together as a team and leave their egos as the door.
The top three that just finished up their Olympics tour is LeBron, Durant and Curry.
Curry wanted to prove himself and did in the Gold Medal game with 24 points, scoring 8 field goals from long range.
Durant and LeBron made valuable contributions as well. They add to the image of NBA players earning eight gold medal championships in nine times since USA went to adult professionals some 32 years ago.
As for the USA women, Flash got to see two of them in their collegiate career in earning an NCAA championship.
That would be Breanna Stewart from U'Conn in 2014 and A'Ja Wilson of South Carolina in 2017.
Just like the men, the women have gone to the professional status, with each a member in the WNBA.
Brittney Griner, Sabrina Ionescu, Jewell Loyd, Alyssa Thomas, Chelsea Gray, Naphessa Collier, Kelsy Plum and Jackie Young went to work for a couple of weeks in Paris and were able to hang out to victory vs. homestanding France.
This was a squad that went into the Olympics with question marks after the WNBA all stars beat them 117 to 109 on July 20 in Phoenix.
It is the closest Gold Medal game in Olympics women's basketball as France had a team they felt that could end the run of Team USA.
For high school players and coaches from around the Gameday Weekly coverage area, I'm sure paid some attention to how the Americans were competing in France.
Young people treasure folks like Curry, LeBron, Durant, Stewart, Wilson, Plum and others as heroes.
I felt the same way when the Dream Team got organized as I was just in my early 30s when I followed their quest to Gold through seeing the games on TV and Marv Albert with the play by play for NBC.
The sport of basketball has plenty of positive to appreciate, despite situations like NIL in college and the transfer portal that is also happening through teams in the AHSAA.
The game is king and queen right now across the world and we as fans of the game share this with the hard working Americans that looked good for two weeks in Paris, France.
Photo of USA women celebrating their 67 to 66 victory in the Olympics August 11 vs. France.
Photo courtesy of USA Basketball.
