HOUSTON (USA) - History beckons Kevin Durant, the USA's all-time leading scorer in Olympic history with 518 points and a four-time gold medalist.
KD, who began his hugely impressive national team run with the Americans with an MVP performance at the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup, has since reached the top of the podium at the Summer Games in London (2012), Rio de Janeiro (2016), Tokyo (2021) and Paris (2024).
France handed him his only Olympic defeat on opening day in Japan, and Durant responded by leading the Americans to gold and then being honored as the tournament's MVP.
Should Durant play in 2028, he'd be the first male basketball player to represent the USA at five Olympics.
Can you say, "Flag-bearer at Opening Ceremonies?"
"Hell yeah, I want to play," Durant said to ESPN. "I would love to, but I've got to stay on top of my game. I'm not expecting, I want to produce on the floor and make Grant (Grant Hill is managing director of the men's team) and whoever is making the decisions, want to put me on the team. I don't want - not just for seniority. I want to still prove I can help the team win."
Durant was not as dominant in Paris as he had been at previous Olympics but that owed to his willingness to let James take center stage in the King's last Games.
'France is coming for you.' Really? We smacked them boys!
KD played 32 less minutes and attempted 35 fewer shots in France compared to Tokyo, with his scoring average dropping from 20.7 points per game in Japan to 13.8 points per game in 2024.
The 2024 USA team was spoiled for choice, though, with not only James playing for the first time since 2012 and providing his share of points but Stephen Curry also competing at the Olympics for the first time.
If the Olympic competition from top to bottom in France was the toughest of all time, then Curry, James and Durant formed arguably the most explosive scoring trio for a USA team at a Games since Barcelona '92, when NBA players began playing.
Indeed, the 2024 USA scoring triumvirate was just as explosive, if not more so, than the holy hoops trinity of Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan, the top three points getters for the '92 Dream Team.
James has already decided he will not be in the USA team at the LA Games and there was speculation that France would also be the last Olympic rodeo for Curry and Durant.
"You guys, the media, have projected that," Durant said. "That narrative, where did the last dance thing come from? I didn't say I wasn't playing. LeBron said he wasn't. You didn't hear that from me or Steph."
Durant also takes offense to the suggestion that the rest of the world and especially Europe has caught up with the USA.
Durant knows there is a growing number of superstars from overseas in the NBA now, and the fact that the last player from the United States to win the league's MVP honor was James Harden in 2018.
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), Nikola Jokic (Serbia), Joel Embiid (Cameroon) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) have won it since.
Embiid is African but has lived in America for a long time and represented USA at the Olympics.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, France's Victor Wembanyama and Slovenia's Luka Doncic are among the leading contenders for the MVP award this season.
"I just don't like the talk around the USA versus European style of how you approach the game," Durant told ESPN. "All I hear is, 'AAU is destroying the game; the Euros do it right while the Americans do it wrong.'
"It's a lot of bulls*** with that...
"'France is coming for you.' Really? We smacked them boys," he said.
USA rebounded from that 2021 defeat to France in the opener by beating them in the Gold Medal Game in Tokyo, 87-82. The Americans also the beat Les Bleus in the 2024 Final, 98-87.
Would it be possible to have a third USA v. France Olympic final in LA 2028?
FIBA