Paris Olympics: ‘It’s time to lock in for USA’, says basketball coach Steve Kerr ahead of Serbia challenge

Paris:  The 2024 Paris Olympics are a historical one when it comes to men’s basketball. The Dream Team and the Redeem team are perhaps the two greatest lineups ever assembled in USA basketball and its time for the current stars to make their mark on an international stage.

Ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday, which officially marks the beginning of the Games, head coach Steve Kerr stated that it was time for his side to ‘lock in.’

“(It’s) just effort and energy, play after play after play. This is different. This is not an 82-game season (like the NBA). They’re not going to play 125 games total with preseason and playoffs and all that. It’s literally six games. And watching the tape, we’re jogging through some possessions, not hitting bodies on box-outs. And so it’s time. It’s time to lock in on that. And as I said, that’s for all of us — coaches and players — to get to that point,” said head coach Kerr in a press conference.

The USA team is coming off a tremendous round of exhibition games going 6-0 in games that were played in London, Dubai and Las Vegas in which they faced two of the three members of their Group C in Serbia and South Sudan.

South Sudan were the team that almost got the better of the giants but a late winner by LeBron James saw them lose by just a point.

NBA stars Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, former teammates for the Golden State Warriors, claimed that the level of competition on the international stage has risen and that the opponents they will face are much more challenging than what the Dream Team had to face in the 1992 Olympics.

“You see that thing where they said the Dream Team played against nine NBA players, and…” Curry trailed off before Kevin Durant completed his sentence by saying, “We’re playing against 65, or 64 NBA players now. They’re all the best of the best in the world now.”

Continuing with its tradition of putting up a Dream Team comprising many stars from the National Basketball Association (NBA), the USA have included megastars LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry to Paris.

The tradition of the Dream Team started in 1992 in Barcelona when the NBA allowed its stars to appear for the United States and expanded when current NBA professionals were allowed to play in 1996.

In Paris, the USA will be defending the title they won in Tokyo, maintaining their dominance of the sport at the Olympics.

Curry said he is excited to be playing in his first Olympic Games and was looking forward to being part of the same roster as LeBron James, who will be the male flag-bearer of the United States contingent at the Opening Ceremony on Friday.

“I’m grateful to be in Paris. It’s one of my favourite cities in the world. I’m excited for my first opportunity [to play at the Olympics],” he said.

About playing with LeBron James, Curry said, “His game speaks for itself. His style of play meshes well (with mine). There are a lot of different skill sets on our team, but the chemistry is pretty natural.”

The NBA stars will have to adjust their game a bit because of the differences in rules and court markings. Curry, a shooter par excellence, will be one of those who will have to adapt his game to the Olympic style as the three-point line is marked differently by FIBA and the NBA.

“It’s been a little different. You might shoot a couple long because your are not used to it, but I’m getting used to the dimensions on the court. At the end of the day, you don’t think about it, you just catch the ball and have the mentality to score.”

Kevin Durant, Team USA’s all-time leading men’s scorer in Olympic competition, was asked if he thinks France are a contender for the gold medal.

“Everybody is a contender,” Durant said. “Everyone is here for a reason.”

Unlike the first Dream Team, which won gold at Barcelona in 1992 but only faced nine active NBA players, the current 2024 team will face a lot many active NBA players.

“And we’re playing against 65, 64 NBA players in Paris,” Durant responded. “So you know they’re the best in the world.”

Curry was asked who between NBA All-Star players Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece, an MVP player, and Nikola Jokic of Serbia would be like to play against in Paris.

“Whoever’s in the gold medal game,” the Golden State Worries star said.

USA is in Group C where they will face Nikola Jokic’s Serbia, South Sudan and Puerto Rico. The basketball event begins on Saturday.

–IANS