AMSTERDAM (Netherlands) - After hitting an iconic shot that cemented his place in Olympic lore before replicating his heroics in the World Tour Hong Kong Final, Worthy de Jong has stamped his place among the immortals of Dutch athletes.
De Jong finished 2024 wearing the 3x3 crown after an insane season where he won three World Tour MVPs, including the prized top honor in the Hong Kong showpiece having hit the Maurice Lacroix Buzzer Beater in epic fashion.
A statue in the Netherlands will surely one day be built in his honor after he lifted the European nation to their first hoops-related Olympic gold medal.
Having shrugged off a groin injury sustained earlier in the Paris Olympics, de Jong defied the rabid fans at La Concorde and crushed France's dreams of a home triumph after tying the gold medal decider in regulation with a layup before he became a legend in OT with his step back two-piece that will be replayed forever.
"That shot unleashed so much," de Jong told Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. "The shot I made in the Olympic final is a difficult shot, but it's a shot I often do like that.
"It's confidence in myself, in the work I've done. It's repetition, repetition. I knew I wanted to get to that spot, I could see the clock and I knew how much time I had left."
De Jong's heroics on the biggest stage in sports has made him famous in the Netherlands, where basketball is fast-emerging having been traditionally a minor sport. A basketball court in Amsterdam Zuidoost was named after him and is known as 'Worthy Legacy 3x3 Court', while de Jong has also made appearances on popular Dutch television shows and been profiled in print media.
"I was asked to present the Golden Televizierring. I had no idea what I was doing there," de Jong said. "All those TV personalities, I didn't know most of them, it's such a different world. The Worthy de Jong from before the Games would never have been asked to do that.
"You make commercial deals. I embrace it, also for basketball, which has never seen this exposure before. I see it as the payoff for everything I've ever invested in my sport. To be completely honest - and I would never have said this before the Games - it's time to cherry-pick."
After his Olympic dream came true, the 36-year-old de Jong was made even more emotional knowing that his ill mother was able to see him achieve the heights of his career. "I achieved the things I wanted to achieve after my switch to 3x3," he said.
"High on that list was that I wanted my mother to see me play at the Olympic Games. She has cancer and there is not much that can be done about it, except to postpone the end. But I succeeded, she saw me."
Having revitalized his career on the half-court, the famously fit de Jong might just have enough left in the tank for the bright lights of the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
"I never have injuries, I feel good," he said. "I lost my love for the game once in five-on-five basketball, found it again in 3x3 and I'm going to keep knitting on that until it's gone."
FIBA