The 2024 Paris Olympics has concluded and the USA males’s basketball crew introduced house a fifth straight gold medal by the pores and skin of its enamel. Serbia had the People useless to rights till it went darkish from 3 (0 for 10 within the fourth quarter) as Stephen Curry was on an all-time heater. 

France adopted that with a scare of its personal within the gold-medal sport, however Curry as soon as once more placed on his cape with 4 3-pointers in a two-minute stretch because the U.S. breathed a large sigh of reduction. 

For me, that was essentially the most entertaining Olympic basketball event I’ve ever watched. Curry was in full “no freaking method he simply did that” mode, and the 2 white-knuckle endings the People needed to navigate weren’t as a result of they have been enjoying right down to the competitors. Quite the opposite, they have been compelled to boost their stage to the apex of their particular person and collective expertise to win this gold medal. 

Serbia and France gave us all an exquisite reward by bringing these two performances out of the People. It was simply a unprecedented couple weeks of basketball, and alongside the way in which, as has been the case with each Olympic competitors since we began sending NBA gamers in 1992, one of the crucial enjoyable elements of all of it was attending to see all these superstars enjoying collectively. 

It makes you marvel: Who could be the Olympic duos you’d most like to see paired up within the NBA? There are literally a bunch, however I’ve narrowed it down to a few — two of that are in all probability pure fantasy. However hell, it is the offseason. Let’s have a little bit enjoyable. 

Not solely have these two been the main males in one of the crucial epic rivalries the NBA, and actually the entire sports activities world, has ever seen, however as we noticed over these previous few weeks in Paris, they’re completely suited to enhance each other on the court docket. 

Watching James conduct the U.S. offense felt in some ways just like the purest type of basketball he has ever performed. At his most mobile stage, he has at all times been extra Magic than Michael, a grasp manipulator with the ball in his arms and the readability of a 6-foot-8 view. With Curry being not simply the signature shooter but in addition essentially the most deadly route runner in NBA historical past, what we’d get is basketball’s model of Montana to Rice. 

The best quarterback. The best receiver. Two gamers with sixth-sense intuitions seeing the court docket as one, sensing house earlier than it even materializes, LeBron passing to not the place Curry is, however the place he is going to be. As Curry emerges from the maze of his personal random making, he meets the ball, or the ball meets him, it is too synchronized to inform, however both method its on time and goal and in excellent place for the world’s most masterful marksman to tug the quickest set off identified to man. 

“You simply marvel at his expertise,” James stated of enjoying with Curry in Paris. “Clearly, I’ve seen it earlier than, you understand, on the other facet. However having him in your facet, you simply attempt to get stops and determine different methods on the opposite finish, however preserve discovering him. Maintain getting him the ball.”

That is one web page of the playbook. Decide and rolls grow to be an entire different unsolvable riddle. Make Curry the screener, as Steve Kerr did in essentially the most essential stretches Crew USA confronted in Paris, and he both pops up high for an open 3 otherwise you chase LeBron from behind as he barrels downhill. 

Now flip it. Put the ball in Curry’s arms and watch him feast on pull-up 3s till double groups grow to be a mandatory evil, at which level he passes excessive to what would fairly merely be essentially the most harmful brief curler in historical past as LeBron Freaking James, essentially the most prescient passer since at the least Magic Johnson, rapidly conquers the 4-on-3 chess board earlier than him. Defenses, even with LeBron on the doorstep of 40 and Curry just a few years behind, would not stand an opportunity. 

Now, is an NBA marriage of the previous decade’s two best gamers a fair midway real looking chance? Virtually actually not. That is what made watching them work magic collectively in Paris so particular, as a result of we have by no means seen them on the identical crew and certain by no means will once more. 

However hey, no person ever thought Curry and Kevin Durant would play collectively, and it isn’t just like the Warriors or Lakers are ready to compete for a title. We all know the Warriors truly pitched the Lakers on a commerce for LeBron ultimately yr’s deadline. LeBron, in response to ESPN, shot the concept down, however what if this Olympic expertise has planted a seed in his head? What if Klay Thompson leaving the Warriors, who’re clearly not keen to go all-in on one final run at a fifth championship, has left Curry, if solely in his most personal moments, extra keen to at the least entertain the concept of ending his personal profession some other place? 

Once more, it is nearly certainly by no means going to occur. But when we’ll dream, we’d as effectively dream massive. 

The fantastic thing about Durant is he suits on any crew with any co-star. He is Paul George if he awakened one morning with superpowers. Edwards, in the meantime, is Devin Booker strapped to a rocket booster. The KD-Ant pairing in all probability would not equate to the multiplicative powers of a LeBron/Curry marriage, however man, would it not be enjoyable to look at them take turns as equally spectacular scorers. 

Edwards is already one of the crucial joyful performers within the league, and watching his thousand-watt smile mild up on the alternative to play in Paris alongside Durant, his childhood idol, was fairly cool. When Ant caught a lob cross from Durant for a dunk within the Olympics, you could possibly see the dream-come-true pleasure written throughout his face as he floated again down the court docket. 

We all know Durant can thrive alongside different stars; he is the best Olympic participant in historical past and stepped proper into the Golden State machine on the top of its energy and solely added to its effectivity. That was a query many individuals had about Edwards as he declared himself Crew USA’s No. 1 choice: Would he be capable to curb his takeover instincts when deference was referred to as for? He had no downside doing that in Paris, the place he naturally toggled between famous person scorer and supremely overqualified assist employees. 

In a hypothetical world, maybe the Suns would wish to align a youthful co-star with Booker’s longer timeline whereas the Timberwolves goal to maximise this present window, which may very well be the logic behind a deal sending Durant to Minnesota in trade for Karl-Anthony Cities. 

I am going to let you know this: Durant and Edwards, with that Minnesota protection, could be unimaginable, and Cities might quietly flip Booker and Bradley Beal right into a famous person duo with five-out spacing. I am attempting to speak myself into this! 

This one truly appears real looking. After watching these two work collectively for the Serbian crew that got here this near upsetting the People in Paris, Denver could be justified in giving Atlanta a name and attempting to determine a solution to make some salaries work with the sweetener of a future first-round choose to get it achieved. 

The Hawks would nearly actually be open to a deal, and boy would Bogey, a completely deadly 3-point shooter, tackle a big-time want for the Nuggets, who ranked useless final in 3-point makes an attempt and twenty fifth in 3-point makes per sport final season. Even with Jokic, the most effective participant and most bankable creator of offense on the earth, that is a tricky gap to dig out of each evening. 

Bogdanovic was considered one of three gamers on the Olympics to make at the least 18 3-pointers, becoming a member of Germany’s Dennis Schroder (18) and Curry, who made a preposterous 17 triples within the remaining two video games and completed with 22 for the event. 

I’d like to see Jokic and Bogdanovic hook again up on an NBA crew, and once more, it truly appears real looking.