By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
United States got their 14th gold Olympic medal, but failed to convince that they deserve to be compared with 1992’s Dream team. In the Olympic final in London offered… blood, sweat and tears to win Spain (107-100) and managed to do it with Durant to shoot 3ps, LeBron to do a lot of works and Paul to have clear mind in the end.
The Spaniards although tried to steal the win until the last minute. So that Pau Gasol received the congratulations of all NBAers for the competitiveness that he and his teammates showed…
This was the last game for Mike Kryzewski in the U.S. national team after a 62-1 record with his only failure to be the defeat in the semifinal of the 2006 World Championship against Greece. Goodbye said also Kobe Bryant, who because of his age won’t be able to win a third gold medal in row.
David Stern’s ask to institute an age limit (23 years) with three exceptions to the Olympic tournament, will not go on (at least in Rio) and so the show will go on …
The medal and the goodbye
The bronze-medal game was as beautiful as the final. Russia won (81-77) Argentina in a game that marked the end of the golden generation’s era of South Americans. The company of Shved and Kirilenko celebrated the podium as if it was the golden medal and the “unique five” Prigioni, Ginobili, Delfino, Nocioni, Scola were crying for the missed chance. All of them are too old to play again all together in a big event, so that Ginobili said that “this is one of the most painful defeats of my life”.