US men’s basketball team collects Olympic memories: ‘I had to be a fan’
PARIS — Stephen Curry just wanted to feel like an Olympian.
During the opening ceremony on July 26, he floated down the Seine River on the Team USA boat, surrounded by hundreds of elite athletes. But the Golden State Warriors star’s celebrity status kept getting in the way of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“I didn’t feel like one of the (athletes) at first, because people would come up to me and say, ‘Can I take a picture with you?'” said Curry, who is competing in her first Olympics at age 36. “It was that kind of vibe. I really had to stop and say, ‘No, I want to know who you are, what you do and level the playing field because you’re here for a reason, too.'”
Hours later, Curry had taken more than 200 photos with other athletes on his phone as he learned about the timeless tradition of Olympic pin trading. This would become Curry’s favorite off-court moment of all.
“I got to be a fan,” he said. “It was special.”
The players on this U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team – who are among the most famous athletes in the world and whose collective star power is the main reason they stay away from the athletes’ villages during the Games – have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities to connect with and admire their contemporaries in recent weeks.
And now that the Games are almost over, with the U.S. team playing Serbia in the semifinals on Thursday and the gold medal match two days later, the reminiscing has begun.
When Kevin Durant was asked to name his favorite memory of the Games, the answer came without hesitation.
“See Simone,” he said with a smile.
Like LeBron or KD or Steph, legendary American gymnast Simone Biles is one of the few athletes here whose Q-rating is so astronomical that she doesn’t need a last name. So on August 1, the night after the men’s basketball team defeated South Sudan in pool play and two nights before the Americans would beat Puerto Rico, a group that included Durant, Curry, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Tyrese Haliburton went to watch Biles in action.
That evening she won her sixth gold medal in the all-around competition, while her compatriot Suni Lee took bronze.
“I’ve never been this close to a gymnastics event,” said Durant, the Phoenix Suns star and three-time gold medalist who is hoping to become the first to win a fourth medal. “Obviously I’ve seen (gymnastics) on TV, but it’s different when you’re there in person. And just to see her greatness, along with the other girls who put so much time into what they do, it’s just amazing to see how great they’ve become.”
But Durant’s observations went far beyond the exciting results.
Until that night, he didn’t know gymnastics was such a youth sport. He heard all about how Biles, 27, is considered “old” in her sports world, and how so many gymnasts — like 16-year-old American Hezly Rivera — become elite before they can vote.
He heard the widespread criticism Biles faced in 2021, when she withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics despite being a gold medal favorite in most of her events, citing a condition known as “the twisties.” Biles, who would later openly discuss the mental health issues she struggled with at the time, became disoriented in the air and decided to take to the skies as a result. For Durant, that decision — and the roaring comeback that has unfolded since — are as much a part of her legend as anything that came before it.
But what Durant admires most about Biles, it seems, is how fearless she is about telling the world how she feels, no matter what scrutiny comes her way. In front of the cameras. On social media. Wherever that may be.
Durant, no stranger to criticism himself, is known for engaging with fans and media members on public platforms, and Biles is now one of his inspirations in that way and many more.
“When people see so much potential in you at a young age, you get so trashed, and she’s experienced that at the highest level,” Durant said. “For her to come out every day and show her brilliance, and also let people know they sound crazy when they talk to her? That she can do both is inspiring.”
Durant paused.
“So yeah, she’s inspired me to keep tweeting and to keep doing what I do on the field,” he said with a laugh.
Of all the American hoopers who create memories, Booker is the most qualified to actually capture them. In 2016, when looking for creative ways to document his first-ever All-Star experience in Toronto, Booker decided to go the vintage route and use a camcorder instead of a cell phone.
“I have some really good friends who introduced me to cameras my rookie year, and they were like, ‘Yo, keep a handycam with you (because) it feels more authentic than an iPhone,'” said Booker, the 27-year-old Tokyo gold medalist who is competing in his second Olympics. “You get that old-school feel. It makes you pay more attention to it, it makes you listen to it a little bit more. With an iPhone camera, the camera is too good.”
Fast forward to these Games in Paris, two of Booker’s friends who help him produce his online content came along, and he shared high-quality, well-edited videos that routinely went viral on his Instagram feed.
“We go back and watch all the videos and cut them up,” Booker said. “The handicam is easy. We just take the coolest moments and put them all in one.”
Like Durant, Booker said the chance to see Biles up close was at the top of his personal list. But there were many more.
On Sunday afternoon, Booker went to see his ‘good friend’, the American fencer Miles Chamley-Watsonin a bronze medal match against France, and then traveled to Stade de France to witness Noah Lyles’ stunning photo-finish victory in the 100 meters.
If he had to pick a favorite experience besides Biles (that was Durant’s choice, after all), Booker said it was the trip to La Concorde on July 29, when his passion for skateboarding was fulfilled like never before.
“When I see (American skateboarders) Nyjah (Huston), when I see Jagger (Eaton) and Yuto (Horigome) from Japan — all of whom were top three — I admire those guys,” Booker said. “I tried to stand on a skateboard, and I grew out of it really quickly. But I’m aware of the skate culture and how they go about their business, and I f— with it.
“The experience for me is unparalleled. It’s going to all the other events and seeing all the other talented people in the world at the same time. It’s something I’m passing on to generations of me. I’m sending my handycam footage to my children’s children’s children and hopefully they feel it.”
As Curry thinks back on all the different interactions that brought him joy, he begins to recount the memories he was given during some of those moments. Of course, none of them could possibly compare to the gold they’re all striving for, but they’re still special.
He had a ping pong ball signed by the US women’s table tennis team when they came to watch the men’s basketball team practiceAnd yes, for those wondering, that’s the same group of women who told Minnesota Timberwolves star and self-proclaimed table tennis extraordinaire Anthony Edwards that he couldn’t score a single point against any of them during their boat ride during the opening ceremony.
Anthony Edwards thinks he can compete with the US table tennis team 😂 photo.twitter.com/30GdJOmR3G
— Sideline Sources (@sidelinesources) July 27, 2024
And then there are the pins. So many cool pins.
“My (USA) skateboard is my favorite,” Curry said. “I have a Team Jamaica one, which was cool because I have a lot of family on my wife’s side that’s from Jamaica. And also a pistol shooter.”
He also has a plan for the photos.
“I’m so sentimental,” he said. “So if I have the prints, I might archive them and preserve them in a way that six months or six years from now, you might pull out a bottle of wine and just go through them and kind of think about them. I just want to have all those memories so I can relive them.”
Required reading
(Top photo of Steph Curry cheering on Simone Biles: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
