For Team USA, a reunion of Kevin Durant and Steph Curry brings hope for a much-needed boost

PARIS — The USA Basketball experience can bring together younger players who look up to older icons, mold former legendary rivals into co-captains and nurture future NBA pairings that can reshape the league.

This edition of Team USA, here in Paris preparing to defend its gold medal again, starting with Sunday’s game against Serbia (11:15 a.m. ET), is also about reunions.

The two best players on the last team to win back-to-back NBA titles are teammates for the first time in five years, since the summer of 2019, when Kevin Durant decided he no longer wanted to play on Steph Curry’s team.

“You just pick up where you left off,” Durant said Thursday during a joint press conference with Curry ahead of the Paris Olympics, which begin Friday night with the opening ceremony on the Seine River.

“I think that familiarity only helps us take advantage of this experience,” Curry added.

Though Durant has not played for the Americans this summer because of a calf injury, he has been back in practice and otherwise with Team USA, from training camp in Las Vegas to the team’s arrival in France on Wednesday. He participated in the team’s scrimmage in a Parisian suburb and looked sharp, with Durant dunking in traffic visible on the team’s social media account.

🇺🇸 #USABMNT buckets in Paris! photo.twitter.com/WZTcAVw3aW

— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 25, 2024

Durant is questionable to play against Serbia. It’s unclear what his role will be when he’s in uniform — will he start alongside Curry or come off the bench? — but every time the two have been on the same team, the result has been magical.

Curry and Durant were first teammates at USA Basketball in 2010, when they were part of the gold-medal-winning group at the FIBA ​​World Championship in Turkey. No player has enjoyed FIBA ​​competition as much as Durant did at the 2010 World Championship, where he led the Americans in scoring (men’s or women’s) with a career-high 22.8 points per game. Curry played a smaller role on that team, but shot 7 of 19 three-pointers in eight games.

Durant joined Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green at the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016. The Warriors had already been to the previous two NBA Finals, winning the first and narrowly losing the second to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Durant’s addition made the Warriors an unstoppable force, cementing what remains the NBA’s last dynasty.

Should opponents double-team Durant, a former league MVP and scoring king, or Curry, arguably the greatest shooter ever? It’s the kind of choice Olympic opponents would have to make with Durant on the court, made all the more stressful by the other stars Curry and Durant would surround.

It was a similar situation for the Warriors, an All-Star team, essentially, with Green and Thompson on the court and a brilliant cast of supporting players. They won the next two titles, losing just one of nine games to the Cavs in the 2017 and 2018 Finals.

The Warriors returned to the Finals in 2019, but the season was one of turmoil in the Warriors locker room, in part due to Durant’s impending free agency. As the playoffs rolled around, Durant suffered a calf injury late in the second round and was out until Game 5 of the Finals, when he tore his Achilles tendon.

As expected, Durant left Golden State as a free agent and joined the Brooklyn Nets alongside Kyrie Irving.

“You’re going up against guys, and like you said, we have a history as teammates and winning at a high level,” Curry said when asked to address his reunion with Durant. “First of all, it’s respect for what everybody’s done in their career. When you’re going up against people, you play with them, you see them in different aspects throughout your NBA journey. You learn a lot about people. And that familiarity only helps us in this situation because everybody’s going about it the right way, getting themselves mentally and physically prepared to be able to play basketball and coming with the right energy of, ‘We’re just trying to win.’

“And then I know how hard he works. I’ve seen it up close and personal in those three years, and I know the level he’s trying to reach competitively to be his best self and why he’s the all-time leading scorer in Olympic history.

“So you thrive on that preparation to give you confidence. Like, hey, we’re here on business, but we’re also here to continue to learn from each other.”

Kevin Durant’s impending return could bring a new level of chemistry to an American team in desperate need of it. (Arun Sankar/AFP via Getty Images)

The NBA is used to big rifts. They happen, and as long as the reunion isn’t the next day — if Thompson were on Team USA now, having just left the Warriors for the Dallas Mavericks, it would be awkward — the reconnection of players like Curry and Durant has been seamless. They’ve long since talked about the feelings that came with winning together, the drama of 2018-19 and Durant’s departure.

There’s the added cushion of Durant having played for Team USA at the last Olympics in Tokyo, when Steve Kerr was an assistant coach. Kerr, of course, is the longtime coach of the Warriors and the current head coach of Team USA.

Durant called it the “cool part of the Olympics” for the Americans to have situations where he and Curry had played together, and he had played under Kerr before. He said those circumstances help Team USA close the gap it has in team chemistry compared to other countries whose players are teammates on their national teams every summer.

The Americans have said at times this summer that they are at a disadvantage when it comes to continuity. It’s a statement you hear every summer when Team USA loses or narrowly avoids defeat. But countless relationships on the U.S. Olympic team transcend this summer.

To consider:

Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum and Derrick White all play for the Boston Celtics, who recently won the NBA championship.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis play for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Durant and Devin Booker are teammates on the Phoenix Suns.

Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton were on the US Basketball World Cup team last summer.

Bam Adebayo stars for the Miami Heat and Erik Spoelstra, an American assistant and head coach in Miami, is the only coach he ever played for (in the NBA).

James previously played under Spoelstra in Miami. Another American assistant, Tyronn Lue, was James’ coach with the Cavs for all those finals against the Warriors.

“You see Bam and his coach here, LeBron and all the guys that he’s played for here,” Durant said. “So that familiarity is going to help us going forward, and hopefully we get some good results from it.”

There’s been a lot of buzz about Curry and James playing together for the first time. Durant is also Edwards’ favorite player, and Edwards has been looking forward to sharing the court with him as teammates for weeks.

As for superteams emerging from the 2024 Olympics, like the way the Heat’s former big three James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were formed during their time with USA Basketball, it’s too early to tell. Haliburton and Edwards already recruited each other to join their NBA teams as USA teammates last summer — instead, they signed max contract extensions with the Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves, respectively. Maybe later.

As for the here and now, these American players and coaches know each other more than well enough to get the job done.

“We have another level,” Kerr said Thursday. “I think we have two more levels we can go to, but it’s always a collaboration.”

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(Top photo of Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant: Michael Kappeler/Alliance Photo via Getty Images)