The 2024 Olympic men’s basketball tournament ends with the U.S. taking on host France in a showdown at Bercy Arena
The 2024 Olympicmen’s basketball tournament ends with the U.S. taking on host France in a showdown at Bercy Arena.
Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and LeBron James will lead the team as it seeks a fifth consecutive gold medal and 17th overall.
NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama got off to a quick start for France, scoring seven points in the first four minutes, including a highlight dunk after blowing past Joel Embiid at the top of the key.
The U.S. leads France more than midway through the first quarter.
The gold medal men’s basketball game at the Paris Olympics between the U.S. and France is underway.
Many of the celebrities and VIPs with seats marked off arrived just in time for a bit of a crush just as the national anthems started.
Scottie Pippen, who played for the U.S. in 1992 as part of the Dream Team and again in 1996, visited and hugged four-time NBA champ Tony Parker as the Star-Spangled Banner ended. As the French anthem played, he walked down courtside to his seat where he hugged IOC member and former NBA star Pau Gasol.
Jayson Tatum has one more chance to have a bona fide moment during the Paris Games.
As the U.S. prepares to play host France in the gold medal game, he was on the court for an extended time going through his pregame shooting routine. Throwing passes to him was U.S. assistant coach Ty Lue, Tatum’s cousin and the coach of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Tatum has been a constant story during the U.S. run, playing in only three of the Americans’ five games. He was held out of the team’s opener against Serbia and its dramatic 95-91 comeback against the Serbians in the semifinals.
Coach Steve Kerr has been adamant it isn’t personal but rather a matchup-related decision not to play the Boston Celtics star, the player who now has the richest contract in NBA history after signing a $315 million extension earlier this summer.
Tatum said after the first game against Serbia that the experienced humbled him but that he was here to be a team player. That said, he’s a candidate to have a big night for the U.S.
Fans are busy trying to document history with cell phones out during warm-ups for the men’s basketball gold medal game.
They’re taking selfies with the Americans and French on the court behind them or simply shooting video and snapping pics to commemorate the moment.
The game is scheduled to get underway in about 10 minutes.
Remember the sparkly, even glittery shoes LeBron James wore when he first took the court for warm-ups?
Well, James has made a wardrobe change to something even brighter. Now he’s wearing golden shoes so bright they gleam in the lights shining on the court at Bercy Arena.
And why not wear golden shoes when chasing an Olympic gold medal?
France will be “home” for both basketball gold medal games — the men’s one on Saturday night and the women’s one on Sunday afternoon, each time against the U.S.
Home teams are 5-2 entering tonight when playing for basketball gold on home soil.
The U.S. men and women each won in 1984 and 1996, sweeping the titles in Los Angeles and Atlanta. The women’s team from the Soviet Union won in Moscow in 1980.
Australia’s women lost to the U.S. at Sydney in 2000 and Japan’s women also lost to the U.S. at the Tokyo Games three years ago.
Jrue Holiday was on the U.S. men’s basketball team that won gold in Tokyo three years ago. He’s got a chance for a second hoops gold coming up.
That would put him in a tie for the lead in his household.
Holiday’s wife is Lauren Cheney Holiday, a two-time U.S. women’s soccer gold medalist . She won gold in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.
