LILLE, France — No one told me to travel with a locksmith.
Out here on the northern edges of France, where this journey to cover men’s basketball in these Olympics began in the town of Lille, 140 miles away from the epicenter of it all in Paris, the biggest (and best) news yet is that a local handyman with a saw managed to cut through the jammed latch on my apartment’s front door a few days back and keep this American scribe from roaming the unfamiliar streets without a place to sleep.
So really, if one thinks about it, Steve Kerr and I have had a similar experience so far. The Team USA coach’s one and only job in this gold-or-nothing task is to unlock the incredible potential that lies within his star-studded team. And before the Americans routed Serbia in their pool play opener on Sunday, back when Kerr spent multiple media sessions sharing concern about the state of his team’s affairs and giving that “It’s time” declaration which was ultimately heeded, he wasn’t all that different from the local Frenchman who spends his days deciding which tools he’ll need for each and every job.
Yet while Kerr’s choice not to play Jayson Tatum against Serbia might have sparked the most headlines after the latest game, he has an even more important thing to fix ahead that went overlooked a bit in the aftermath of it all: With South Sudan up next on Wednesday, and the memory fresh of the close call against them in a friendly game on July 20, now it’s time for Kerr to get his beloved Golden State Warriors co-worker, Steph Curry, going again.
For everything Curry has accomplished — the four championships, two MVPs, 10 All-Star berths and the like — it was somewhat surreal to see him be one of the “rookies” on the floor against the Serbians. And not just in name alone.
The 36-year-old was underwhelming in his Olympics debut, scoring eight of his 11 points when the game was unofficially over in the fourth quarter while also finishing with three assists, three rebounds, and one turnover in his 21-minute outing (he was a plus-12 overall, to be fair). More specifically, and more problematically, Curry’s bad start individually had everything to do with Serbia jumping out to a 10-2 lead that, in the end, was the only troubling stretch of the entire game for the Americans.
It was his lazy sideline pass to Jrue Holiday just 18 seconds in that led to a layup on the other end, and his lack of awareness defensively early on that led to backcuts and more easy buckets. And it was, as Curry hinted at afterward, very possible that the excitement of this new experience had everything to do with the uncharacteristic sloppiness of his game.
“I had a lot of nerves pregame, up until the national anthem,” Curry said. “It was a really cool environment in there. It obviously was sold out to the nosebleeds. The energy was great. Putting on this jersey at this level — I’ve been looking forward to it for a very long time, and I’m just enjoying the moment. That’s why you see me so animated, from opening ceremony to tonight when I’m on the bench. I’m loving it. So I want to have something to show for it at the end too.”
As does Kerr, who is as well-equipped as anyone to help Curry get back to his dominant ways as soon as possible. Remember, it was Curry who erupted for 24 points and six 3s against Serbia in a friendly win back on July 17. But this is now three consecutive games in which Curry just hasn’t popped, as he’s shooting 38.7 percent overall in that stretch (12-of-31) and just 30.4 percent from the 3-point range (7-of-23) while averaging 11.3 points, 2.7 assists, three rebounds, and 0.3 turnovers in that span.
Stephen Curry is averaging just over 11 points in Team USA’s last three games, shooting just 38.7 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from 3. (Thomas Coex / AFP via Getty Images)
Then again, as Kerr explained, Curry’s well-earned status as the greatest shooter who ever lived means he still makes a massive difference even when that legendary shot isn’t falling.
“A slow start for Steph (against Serbia),” Kerr said. “But you see the impact he makes. He comes flying off a double (team), and LeBron (James) throws it into Jrue Holiday for a layup because they’re terrified of Steph. So the beauty of Steph is that whether he makes shots or not, he impacts the game because he scares the other team. Just the threat of Steph impacts the game.”
As Curry sees it, the key to rediscovering your game while surrounded by fellow greats is patience.
“This is our sixth game together, and I won’t even count the first one because nobody was in shape,” he explained. “So it’s a weird dynamic of you understanding the sense of urgency of the moment, of having to try to play your best every night, but being comfortable with the uncomfortable nature of (the fact that) you don’t know how it’s gonna look every single night. You don’t know who’s gonna get on a heater. It’s gonna be KD tonight (against Serbia in his brilliant 23-point outing), it could be somebody else Wednesday. And that’s just the beauty of this team.”
Anthony Edwards finally got his wish: To play with his favorite player, Kevin Durant. And after all that unwelcome waiting, with Durant’s calf injury keeping him out of training camp and the five exhibition games that followed, the 22-year-old Minnesota Timberwolves star and first-time Olympian had a whole lot of fun in his first time playing alongside his favorite player. Add in the fact that Durant was at his absolute best, scoring 23 points on eight-of-nine shooting in absolutely breathtaking fashion, and Edwards was about the last person on the basketball planet who was surprised by the greatness on display.
“(I expected) nothing less,” Edwards said with a smile about Durant. “He showed me why he’s my favorite player of all time.”
The cherry on top, from Edwards’ standpoint, was that the two of them wound up doing some of the damage together.
After Team USA’s slow start, in fact, it was Edwards and Durant leading the second unit that brought the Americans back. They hit back-to-back 3s late in the first quarter that turned the tide — Durant first and then Edwards 27 seconds later — and forced a Serbian timeout. Edwards and Durant, who last shared a floor when Durant’s Phoenix Suns were being swept by Edwards’ Wolves in the first round of last season’s NBA playoffs, celebrated together near the bench with a series of low-fives, smiles and a chest-bump. From there, Edwards — who is nothing if not entertaining — continued to make a mark. His alley-oop dunk from James at the end of the first quarter punctuated Team USA’s comeback, and his blender bucket past Nikola Jovic at the end of the third marked the unofficial ending.
He finished with 11 points, five rebounds and a plus-16 mark in 19 minutes off the bench.
“It was fun,” Edwards said of his official Olympics debut. “I mean, I wasn’t nervous this time (compared to earlier exhibition games). So it was fun. And I got to play alongside KD, so I was good.”
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South Sudan’s incredible run
If Edwards’ assessment of the last South Sudan matchup is any indication, the Americans won’t be surprised by the Olympic newcomers again this time around. Despite the massive talent gap between the two teams, and in spite of the fact that South Sudan is here for the first time in men’s basketball, the Americans trailed by as many as 16 points and were behind 58-44 at halftime before winning 101-100.
“I mean, we wasn’t ready last time,” Edwards said. “We didn’t prepare, so I think we’ll prepare, watch film on them, and come back and be ready to try to beat them.”
Since then, the South Sudan team, coached by former NBA player Royal Ivey and built by former NBA player Luol Deng, went on to earn the program’s first-ever Olympic win by downing Puerto Rico, 90-79, on Sunday. This is hardly the first time South Sudan has caught unsuspecting teams off-guard, as they earned an invite to the Olympics by finishing as the top African nation in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
But South Sudan’s last two games, and the high-level play that they have showcased in them, have made them the feel-good basketball story of this early Olympics stretch because, well, their story is much bigger than basketball. It’s been just 13 years since South Sudan gained independence, making the African nation the youngest on the planet, and much of the time since has been marred by civil war and ethnic violence.
“It’s an incredible accomplishment, you know, given the strife in that region for so long,” said Kerr, whose global consciousness and penchant for empathy have been well-chronicled. “So many refugees coming to the United States and other countries over the last few decades, rebuilding lives. And to build a basketball federation amidst a war and difficulty, and then for Royal and his staff to put together a really good team that plays modern basketball, you know — stretch the floor, shoot 3s, attack the rim. It’s pretty dramatic and remarkable given that region of the world has probably been the slowest developing basketball country, just because the game didn’t reach there for longer than, say, South America or Europe.
“So for Nigeria to do what they did and beat (Team USA) in ’19 (in an exhibition game heading into the 2021 Tokyo Olympics), and South Sudan giving us that game the other day, you see the growth of the game in Africa, but especially with South Sudan with everything that’s happened there, it’s just a remarkable story.”
If the South Sudanese can beat either Team USA or Serbia, which it plays on Saturday, they could move on to the knockout round. Even if they don’t win either game, they still have a shot. With 12 teams competing in all, the top two teams from each of the three groups and the two best third-place teams will advance to the quarterfinals.
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(Top photo of Stephen Curry: Markus Gilliar – GES Sportfoto / Getty Images)
