The basketball millionaires of the United States had made the biggest mess of the Olympics, and could not have blamed anyone but themselves, writes Urheilu’s Roope Visuri.
Roope Visuriruheluth reporter
Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here. You can find the entire program of the games here.
PARIS.
At the Paris Olympics, the eyes of many Finns surely turned to the Stade de France on Thursday evening. The Finns were anxious whether the javelin men would be left without a medal and whether these Olympics would therefore very likely become the historic games with zero medals. In the end, the javelin men were left without a medal, and it was not a major surprise.
On the other hand, bigger surprises were proven in the basketball arena. Even with Finland’s zero medal balance, a much bigger disaster was imminent.
Let’s start with the first mentioned surprise. France was able to beat Finland by Gordon Herbert coached by the reigning world champion Germany, even though in the initial group Germany had violently knocked out France. Then the French cheered for their own team. Coach Vincent Collett and a hero player Evan Fournier got into a war of words in the media after the match, when Fournier berated the team’s way of playing. The team seemed to be in crisis.
Still, France was able to assemble its line up first in the Canada quarter-final and later in the Germany quarter-final so that it could reach the final.
The public was also involved on Thursday, constantly putting pressure on the Germans with deafening whistling concerts and cheering their own so that the decibel meters surely screamed red. A sight that was not expected even a week ago.
Maybe someday in the NBA Lauri Markkasen the ex-supertower of the commercialized Utah Rudy Gobert’s finger injury and also tactical benching was the key to the ascent, when not once the 440-centimeter tower duo By Victor Wembanyama started to work with. Last season’s Euroleague champion Mathias Lessort besides, he has clearly been France’s second best big player after Wembanyama.
For Germany, the defeat was rude. Although France was good, Germany was far from its own level. 50-50 fighting situations went to France with a good percentage. Germany lost the ball in rough places and headed too much into the arms of the clearly bigger France.
Even this could have been considered a surprise, but what else. Undeniably, one more basketball classic was added to Olympic history.
It was really embarrassing to visit the United States
Serbia was to make the biggest surprise of these Olympics. Serbia was pumping basketball to knock the United States out of the finals. Serbia already led the match with 17 points, but had to bow out.
Especially the back guy Stephen Curry was as tough as in his best days and saved the cream of the US millionaire stars from the most embarrassing performance of the Games compared to expectations.
Serbia, on the other hand, was brilliant. The harrowing sight behind the scenes said it all. Considered the best basketball player in the world in recent years Nikola Jokic walked briskly past the interview area. Sensitized and maybe even holding back tears.
Moments later, Stephen Curry rushed past, fanning himself strongly and surely knowing the epic proportions of the victory.
Before that, also about Curry and another “hero papa” About LeBron James captured photos that will surely go down in history. A lot of emotion came out in them.
A loss that could be counted as a giant fiasco was not far away. The Americans could have only themselves to blame for that as well. Tähtisikermä was really unruly, especially in his own defense.
In the past, the quotes had even been so good that the foul-mouthed NBA player and popular podcast host Draymond Green shot this year’s team to be better than the iconic Dream Team of the 1992 Olympics.
Another foul-mouthed commentator, a member of the Dream Team, Charles Barkley on the other hand stated that this team has no business returning home if there is no gold.
Now it was seen that patience is a trump card. Americans should not underestimate European basketball, especially at this time.
The biggest dream of the French has been to grab the men’s basketball gold in front of the United States on the final day of their home tournament. Historically, the games have gone to the French in terms of medal balance, but for a long time it seemed that the greatest desire would be left with a bone in the hand.
Now the dream has surely ignited into bigger flames. Still, a golden jubilee cannot be considered probable.