Big Performances from Olympic Men’s Basketball
Big Performances from Olympic Men’s Basketball
The Olympics from Paris are now over and the U.S. found a way in both semifinals and finals games to win their 17th gold medal. The U.S. need an incredible performance from Steph Curry in both games to get the job done.
As good as Curry was in those two games, let’s take a look at some other players who may be headed to the NBA based on their performances.
*LeBron James got MVP averaging 14.2 points, 8.5 assists, 6.8 rebounds and made 66% of his shots from the field. A deserving MVP based on stats but….
*Curry did very little until the last two games. He averaged 14.8 points, 50% from the field and 47.8% from beyond. When it matters, he dropped 34 points and hit nine 3s against Serbia in the semis and 24 points including four 3s in the final 2:47 against Francie in the Finals.
*Victor Wembayama averaged 15.8 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.7 blocks. But the real story for France was former NBA forward Guerschon Yabusele, who averaged 14 points per game and made second-team all-Olympics. He poured in 20 points in the finals and had a thundering dunk over James. He has been good, but not great overseas playing for Real Madrid in the last three seasons, averaging 14.2 points and 4.9 rebounds. At 28, he’ll need to be bought out or $1M reportedly to get back to the NBA. In 2017-19, he averaged 2.3 points and 1.4 rebounds for the Celtics.
*Nikola Jokic did everything he could other than hit three-pointers when it mattered, to give Serbia a chance to win the Gold. They got the Bronze, and he averaged 18.8 points and 10.7 rebounds He also had a triple-double in the Bronze medal game vs. Germany.
*The most disappointing team in the Olympics were the Canadians. They had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander average 21 points per game to rank second and R.J. Barrett put up 19.8 points (4th), but could not get a medal. This team was loaded with NBA players including Jamal Murray and Aaron Nembhard. Murray had a terrible tournament averaging 6.0 points with 3.8 assists on 29% from the field and 14% from three-point range.
*Good news for the Chicago Bulls. Their new point guard Josh Giddey averaged 175 points, 6.0 assists and 7.8 rebounds in 29.4 minutes for Australia in the Olympics.
