The 2024 Paris Olympics solidified Stephen Curry’s legacy as one of the greatest basketball players ever. In his first experience representing Team USA in the Olympics, he carried the team on his back during the final moments of their gold medal match against France. His barrage of three-pointers live on as one of the greatest clutch moments in basketball history. Young Wizards star Bilal Coulibaly was on the court for France during Curry’s onslaught. Months later, he can finally accept that Curry torched his team in their legendary matchup.
Advertisement
Coulibaly made a guest appearance on The Young Man and The Three where host Tommy Alter asked him about the Olympic experience. The gold medal match against Team USA is still a sore spot for Coulibaly but he’s able to reflect honestly. He reveals just how much in awe he was due to Curry’s heroics. He said,
“We were so close. We were done three and all of a sudden we were down 10. I was like, ‘Man, he literally just killed us.'”
"We were down three and all of a sudden we were down 10" — Bilal Coulibaly talks about being on the opposite side of Steph Curry's explosion vs France in the Gold Medal game pic.twitter.com/gPC3NtGcjw
— TheYoungManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) February 7, 2025
France were the darlings of the tournament. After all, they had home-court advantage playing in front of their fellow countrymen in Paris. They put forth a valiant effort in hopes of winning their first Olympic gold medal in basketball. Instead, they were hopeless in attempting to stop Curry rain down three-pointers.
Falling short in their home country left many France players in a dire state. However, as time has passed many can acknowledge the greatness thatthey witnessed. Coulibaly is far from the only player in that game that was in awe.
Kevin Durant couldn’t believe Stephen Curry’s heroics
Kevin Durant played with Curry on the Warriors between 2016 and 2019. However, he hadn’t seen anything like Curry’s tremendous performance in the gold medal game. When reflecting on Team USA’s legendary run, Durant had extremely high praise for the four-time NBA champion.
“Steph, man, that was a God-like performance,” Durant said. “He was everywhere tonight. It was one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen him play.”
Curry finished the game with 24 points and five assists with all his points coming from three-pointers. The performance is etched in the history books as one of the greatest in basketball history, and Curry’s contemporaries share the sentiment.
