Sure NBA players won Olympic gold. But let's look back on that squeaker with Serbia

We Americans keep telling everyone we are the best players in the world, but . . .

Now that the Olympics have concluded, we are experiencing the warm afterglow from Team USA’s gold medal in basketball. The thrilling win over host country France was epic, and Steph Curry was (what a shock) other-worldly.

But let’s talk about that semifinal nail-bitter with Serbia. Because I think it has some implications for basketball, its future and its significance.

First, a qualifier. I am a proud American, I cheer on my country without fail and nervously watch competitions, anxious that the USA won’t win. However, as a friend said to me after the game, “a tiny part of me was hoping Serbia might pull it off.”

They almost did. And let’s don’t pretend we’re still stuck in the 80s, when European players were balding, hairy-chested guys who looked like the lunch crowd at the YMCA. These teams — France, Germany, Australia and the Serbs — had rosters full of guys who had at least a cup of Gatorade in the NBA.

Not that it would be a problem, of course, we were told. Smug American exceptionalism gave the whole matter a wave. Swing by Paris, pick up the gold and accept accolades.

Here’s the Warriors Draymond Green on his podcast “Predicting the medal round:”

“There’s nothing that no one can do to even come remotely close to beating this team. It’s just not happening. Too good, too much star power.”

How did he see the Serbia matchup?

Matchup? Ha.

He said the Americans would be going up against “A Serbia team that can’t compete. Joker (Denver center Nikola Jokic) is great and it stops there. So I love Serbia as a country, but they can’t compete with team USA.”

“And we know that,” Green continued. “Just watch.”

So we did and holy Serb-burgers they damn near pulled it off. In a win CBS Sports called “frantic,” the Americans were down 17 points at one point, and double digits in the fourth quarter. Only a nearly unbelievable flurry at the end, much to the credit of ever-clutch Kevin Durant, escaped with a 95-91 win.

It was great basketball and great theater. But imagine what a thunderclap it would have been if Durant hadn’t hit those two shots at the end and the U.S. had lost.

First, the gold medal would have been gone. The silver too actually. The Yanks, a 15.5 point favorite coming into the game, would have been relagated to the game for the bronze, which would not have met expectations. Let’s don’t even talk about the chance they might lost the third place playoff.

Second, our own Steve Kerr, the USA coach, was already getting roasted for not playing Jayson Tatum — even Celtics legend Bob Cousy (Yes, he’s still alive) dinged Kerr. If his team had lost in the semi’s the second guessing would go on for days.

But there’s something more to this, and I’d suggest it is part of the reason the Serbian players were clearly deeply, passionately into the game. Serbian forward Bogan Bogdanovic was so fired up barked at officials, played to the crowd and even mocked retired NBA star Carmelo Anthony after he knocked down threes.

It had the feel of a big moment.

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And here’s the thing. I think it is personal with the Euros. I don’t think they necessarily feel welcome in the NBA. And they’d love to show up the smug Americans, players, fans and critics. They want to show they can play.

But it isn’t going to be easy to convince some people.

Paul Pierce, a 19-year NBA veteran and TV talking head, said he had a problem with players like Jokic and Dallas’ Luka Doncic being “the face of the game.” Pierce claimed he was upset that the Europeans didn’t take the All-Star game seriously.

“The top Europeans like Luka, Joker, they couldn't care less about the All-Star game and that's fine,” Pierce said. “But how can I see one of them as the face of the league with that type of attitude?”

Taking the All-Star game seriously? The score of the last one was 211-186, and that is not a misprint. Nobody takes it seriously. (We will address the All-Star game in a moment.)

It seems more likely that Pierce, who has said, “In the NBA, nobody considers (European players) tough. They like pastries. They’re nice,” doesn’t like the way the look of the game game is changing.

After Denver lost in the playoffs this year, Evan Turner, who played 11-NBA seasons, wrote on the media space formerly known as Twitter: “I sound like a hater, but I don’t want to see Jokic play another game. It’s like watching baseball.”

It’s the kind of take that makes European players feel both underappreciated and underestimated.

That’s the joke, and the movie, of course. “White Men Can’t Jump.” The Euros come here after playing lights out in their own country, a national superstar. And they get to the NBA and they get what 14-year NBA veteran Gordon Hayward describes as the the usual treatment.

“"For whatever reason, when you see the white guy guarding you, it's like let's ISO (isolate) him and go at him,” Hayward said. “You've got to hope that you get a stop that first time or else they're just going to keep going at you every single time."

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But, you say, that’s a lot of cultural theology to hang on one close game with Serbia. Any team can have an off night. It would be more interesting if there was an actual trend.

Ah, step with me into the Way-Back machine.

I was in Seoul, Korea, in 1988, when the American Olympic team was made up of the best college players in the country and played the Soviet Union in the semifinals. Led by fearsome Georgetown coach John Thompson, the Americans were going to discombobulate the outclassed Russians with a smothering full-court press and cruise to a gold medal, like literally every other American team, except one, in history.

Didn’t happen. The Russians casually broke the press, nailed open shots and clearly rattled the Americans. The final score, 82-76, was a fair representation of the outcome.

Naturally, everyone freaked the hell out. The international basketball association changed the eligibility rules to allow professional players. The NBA put together a galaxy of stars so impressive they were named “The Dream Team.”

Featuring a who’s who of superstars — Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan for starters — the Dreamers overpowered everyone, took over the city of Barcelona and world order and American dominance was restored.

Sort of.

Today, non-American players are becoming factors. Six of the last seven MVP’s were foreign. And Jokic has three of them.

And there’s been a shift away from American dominance in international competition too.

In the 2023 World Cup, a team of mid-level NBA players were considered plenty good enough to knock off non-American teams. Instead, USA, also coached by Kerr, lost to Germany in the semifinals and then to Canada in the Bronze medal games.

And the result of that was this year, when the American Olympic Committee pulled out all the stops and loaded the roster with Lebron James, Curry and Durant and others. The best of the best of the world.

And they pulled it out. But it wasn’t a rout. It wasn’t easy.

There are no more steps up. This was America’s best and they were in a dogfight for the gold medal.

Which is not only perfectly fine, it is great for the game.

But let’s tone down the-rest-of-the-world-can’t-hold-our-gym-socks, shall we?

Remember when we mentioned the All-Star Game? It is a complete, non-competitive joke. As is often the case, former player and commentator, Charles Barkley has a good idea. To fix it, he’s said repeatedly, it should be a game of the U.S. players against the rest of the world.

But, Barkley said, the NBA hasn’t warmed up to the idea.

“Because,” he said, “they’re afraid they would lose.”

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Twitter and Threads: @cwnevius