The USA men’s basketball team had been under immense scrutiny ahead of the Paris Olympics in 2024. A lot of the criticism came because the national team wasn’t exactly winning much. Then Stephen Curry stepped up to the plate.
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The final between France and the United States was a close affair. Celtics star Derrick White, who played every game but that one, had the best seat in the house — the bench. He admitted that, while the front rows were filled with American support, the stadium was overwhelmingly cheering for the French team, the home team.
The game wasn’t particularly easy. Sure, Team USA managed to get a lead, but they were never really safe. By White’s own admission, every time they pushed the lead up, the French team would knock them back down. “We knew it was going to be a battle … but Steph was unbelievable. He was just going crazy,” White recalled.
White claimed that when the Olympics began, Steph wasn’t really himself. “We were just waiting for that Steph game,” White noted on his podcast. Then the US met Serbia for a spot in the final. The two teams played their hearts out. The final score of 95-91 simply doesn’t do justice to just how close the match was.
Thankfully for the US, Curry turned up, scoring 36 points, which included a 3-pointer with less than 2 1/2 minutes left on the clock. After being down by 13 as they entered the fourth quarter, Team USA would make an astonishing comeback, and Curry would push that momentum to the final versus France.
“It happened in that Serbia game, and he just carried it over to the gold medal … That fourth one, Steph kicks it to KD, and Bron is open in the corner, and ‘Nah, right back to you Steph.’ Unbelievable. To be on the good side of it was an unbelievable feeling,” White reminisced.
“The whole bench is going crazy. We can’t believe what we are watching either. It was unbelievable,” he reiterated. That said, this wasn’t the first time White had seen Steph dial it up to 11, but this was the first time they shared the same team jersey.
“I had seen it before. I just didn’t enjoy it. He did it to us in 2022. It stung me. But being in that side and being so happy … I was on his side. You see it in the NBA, when he does it and the bench goes crazy, and it was just good to be on that side,” White added.
The pair played against each other during the 2022 NBA finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics. During game 4, Curry went full Homelander, scorching the Celtics with 43 points, scoring 14 of the 26 shots he took from the field. On top of that, he also added 10 rebounds, 7 three-pointers and 4 assists, leading the Warriors to a 107-97 win.
