LOS ANGELES (USA) - Is it hyperbole to describe the USA's gold medal-winning heroics at the 2024 Olympics in Paris as the national team's best ever performance at a Summer Games?
The MVP of the Olympics, LeBron James, doesn't think so.
"We can't top what we just did," James said on Mind the Game with co-host Steve Nash, when USA Olympic teammate Stephen Curry was a guest on the podcast.
The King could be right.
The USA had to fight back from a 17-point point deficit in the second quarter and a double-digit deficit at the start of the fourth to stun Serbia, 95-91, and reach the Gold Medal Game.
Curry connected on 9 of his 14 shots from deep and scored his Olympic best 36 points to save the Americans that night.
Then against hosts France, who were roared on by their fans and led by the amazing Victor Wembanyama, whose putback dunk pulled Les Bleus to within 82-79 just 3:04 from the end, the USA put an exclamation mark on their tournament.
Curry made 4 of his 8 3-pointers in the last three minutes of that contest as USA pulled away for a 98-87 victory.
Never say never...
For James, Paris 2024 was another amazing achievement in his legendary career, a third Olympic gold medal triumph to go with his bronze medal win in 2004.
He also has a third-place finish at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2006, and a FIBA AmeriCup 2007 title in Las Vegas.
The four-time NBA champion and four-time league MVP, James was never better for his country than in France, when he averaged 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists - the second highest average of dimes per game in the competition.
Curry, meanwhile, authored the best two-game scoring stretch in Olympic history.
After his astonishing display against Serbia, Curry made 8 3-pointers in the win over France.
His last 3-pointer was labeled the "golden dagger", a long trey he attempted despite France's Nic Batum and Evan Fournier having their hands up to try and affect the shot.
James and Kevin Durant stood wide open on the other side of the court yet Curry never hesitated. He took the shot and buried it!
Curry later called it the most significant 3-ball in his career.
What made Curry's last two performances even more eye-grabbing were his low-scoring games that preceded them.
In the Group Phase, Curry had just 11 points in the USA's first win, against Serbia, and then scored 3 against South Sudan and 8 against Puerto Rico.
In the Quarter-Finals, he had 7 against Brazil.
The first four games were so uncharacteristic for the high-scoring Curry that Nash made him laugh when he asked James on the podcast: "Was it great to welcome him to the Olympics (after) four or five games?"
James even revealed USA players wondered when the real Steph Curry was going to appear.
"You know what's funny," James said, "We'd be at practice and you'd hear Ant (Anthony Edwards say), 'All right, we're waiting on one of those Steph games' and Book (Devin Booker) would be like, 'Oh, it's coming. It's coming.'
"And I'd be like, 'Yea, I can see it.'"
Curry admitted on the podcast that his smaller-than-expected contribution in scoring began to weigh on him.
"It was my first Olympics," he said. "You don't want to be the guy ... that underperforms at a certain moment to dictate whether we win or lose, especially in that locker room."
James attributed Curry's low scoring in the first four games to the challenge that many of the USA superstars have to overcome. They have to adapt to a different role compared to what they have on their NBA teams.
"Your usage rate is not chopped in half," James said. "It's chopped like three-fourths."
And the games are faster.
"I felt the panic at the end of the third quarter
"You're going from a 48-minute game to a 40-minute game," James said. "You don't realize that until you play in those games and see how fast those 10-minute quarters go. Them things is rapid fire...
"Sometimes it's hard to get in a rhythm.
"The benefit that we had, you don't always have to be in a rhythm because you look to your left, and you're like, 'Alright, he got it tonight,' so (it becomes) 'What can I do tonight that will impact winning?' And that was our mindset.
"We knew that he (Curry) was like being super hard on himself."
But James also knew Curry would bring his top game when it mattered.
"Avalanche," James said, describing the scoring explosion that eventually happened for his teammate.
Nash marveled at the USA's high level of play in the last 10 minutes of their Semi-Final against Serbia, saying: "What am I watching right now?"
Serbia? It's one of the best games I've ever played in my life
"It's one of the best games I've ever played in in my life," James said.
Curry highlighted the stress he felt as time began running out on the USA, with Serbia still in the lead.
"I felt the panic at the end of the third quarter," he said. "I'm counting the minutes because you felt how fast the games were."
James also felt the sense of urgency.
"When it (the clock) got under eight (minutes), under seven in the fourth," he said, "It ain't go time. This is like emergency. This is like the president cracking the glass."
"DEFCOM FIVE," Nash said.
Curry still speaks with a sense of relief when he looks back at the Semi-Final.
"First quarter against Serbia in the Semi-Finals, there was a moment when everything was a little tough," he said. "They were playing out of their mind. And then I find a couple of openings. I missed my first 3, and we got an offensive rebound and kicked it to the right wing and I made the second ... and at that point, that's when you start to feel the energy. Maybe if I get a couple of good looks, I was starting to feel it and they just came.
"Pin downs were on time, transition, finding me in the point, like everything, and I was capitalizing. I kept us in it to the point. Then that fourth quarter, 10 minutes of perfect basketball."
Well, almost perfect basketball.
"Except offensive rebounds," Curry said. "We couldn't get an offensive rebound. We couldn't get a defensive rebound. But other than that, it was perfect basketball on both ends. Everybody had their moment. Everybody playing their ass off. And just the idea that it took everything out of us to get it."
Curry then spared a thought for Serbia.
"Serbia played A+ game. A+," he said.
James added: "A+. They're still wondering how the hell they (did not win), for sure."
As for the red-hot shooting against France for Curry in the Gold Medal Game, he reflected on the last three minutes, when he nailed four straight 3-pointers.
"It was just everybody was in flow and I'm the one finishing the play," Curry said.
"They had just cut it to three - Wemby hit the put-back. And you (James) get the ball, and I'm coming to set a screen for you. I actually wanted him (James) to go downhill, maybe get to the free-throw line to at least settle us down because I know he's great at that, just killing momentum for a second."
But instead of driving, James passed to Curry.
"When he threw that pass," Curry said, "Muscle memory took over. I saw (France forward Guerschon) Yabusele bite on it on the left jab, and once you see that, it's just reactionary."
Curry then hit three more 3-pointers, including the golden dagger, a shot he took despite having both Kevin Durant and James open on the other side of the court.
"I'm still laughing when I look at the picture of you and KD over there (with arms raised)," Curry said.
"Quadruple teamed, " James joked, "I can't believe you froze us out like that."
It was an Olympics never to be forgotten for the USA players.
"Bro, I'm telling you, it was one of the best experiences," James said. "It was everything. People ask me about it all the time. (And) I finally got an opportunity to play with Steph.
"It was perfect.
"(Steph was) The first person I texted when we were trying to assemble the team. He said, 'God willing, injuries, I'm good injury-wise, that's the plan (to go to the Olympics).'"
If games against Serbia and France in Paris are the last two that James and Curry play for the USA, then it's a great way to finish up with the USA.
"How are we going to top those last two games?" James said.
Nash agreed.
"That's the top," the Canadian said.
Maybe the temptation of playing at the LA Olympics will be too much for James to resist.
"You think you got an LA Olympics in you?" Nash asked him.
I will be watching it from Cabo
"You already know my answer," James said. "So don't even ask. I will be watching it from Cabo (popular vacation spot at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico).
Curry, however, is leaving the door to LA open.
"God willing, I still have the choice," Curry said. "The physical option to be, like, I could actually impact the team. Never say never, but I highly doubt it."
FIBA