DURANT IS CAPTAIN AMERICA, SAVING USA BASKETBALL FROM ITSELF
Two years after his Achilles tendon ruptured, KD had every reason to stay home like other NBA superstars — instead, he rescued his country’s lagging hoops reputation and willed a way to gold
America may be divided by politics, race and the stupefying effect of vaccine mythology, but we can agree on this much: Basketball gold medals are not to be celebrated. That is particularly so when a victory is clunky and unmemorable. Even if a round planet is encased entirely in leather these days, as a competitive gap narrows, the U.S. remains the lone superpower and should act with appropriate indifference.
You shrug. I shrug. They shrug.
As the horn sounded Saturday in a COVID-barren arena in Tokyo, the winners didn’t explode with joy in a riotous knockdown scrum. They just sort of gathered in exhausted relief before grinning as one, knowing the plane was on the tarmac and pleased they wouldn’t be silver-shamed by a homeland that can do the financial math. The 12 players and their head coach, Gregg Popovich, will collect $320 million in NBA salaries next season. Damn right they should triumph at the Olympics — every Olympics — even when some greats prefer to make movies (LeBron James), take family vacations (Stephen Curry) or explain to Paris police why a rapper pal had 20 grams of cannabis on Avenue Montaigne (James Harden).
What a fourth consecutive championship means is that America still can beat the world with a half-hearted, weak-rostered, arrive-just-before-tipoff effort. It might not suffice in future Summer Games without players making advance commitments to the national program — and keeping their word — but, for now, having one Captain America was enough.
He would be Kevin Durant, last seen wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, smiling like a man who loves life in a country where he can announce a $198 million extension with the Brooklyn Nets in the afternoon, then lead Team USA to a typically (and needlessly) tense, 87-82 victory over France. He also can use our constitutional liberties to spew homophobic and misogynistic language on social media — and our legal freedoms to chase NBA championships with the superteams of his choice. But those are the norms of a 21st-century America, and more than any other athlete on the sports landscape, Durant personifies this raging get-out-of-my-wayism.
At present, amid a fascinating public life in which he’s alternately loved and loathed by fans perplexed by his moods, Durant is the best basketball player in the world and the greatest of all U.S. basketball Olympians. There was a Dream Team, back in the day, and now there’s a Dream Meme of KD rescuing a nation from hoops ignominy. Quickly, he snatched the glory and focus back from Giannis Antetokounmpo — who wouldn’t have won an NBA title in Milwaukee if Durant had been accompanied by a healthier Harden and Kyrie Irving — and reminded us that he’s the global hoops king. Having already returned valiantly from an Achilles rupture known to curtail or end careers, he not only embraced a fraught Tokyo experience but used these weeks to advance his remarkable legacy.
In one swoop, Durant upheld America’s basketball reputation, rescued Popovich from a crushing personal defeat and sent Jerry Colangelo into a well-deserved, satisfying retirement as the man who fixed USA Basketball. As Larry Brown and the 2004 bronze medalists are stingingly aware to this day, you don’t want to be associated with any color except gold. Durant made sure an early tournament loss to France wouldn’t define the journey, carrying the Americans through sluggish stretches and slow starts with his unstoppable offensive arsenal. Whenever there was a stall, a drought, a series of turnovers, he rose to extend a helping hand. Twenty-one of his 29 points came in the first half, creating a cushion while dealing with enemy strategy — avoiding foul trouble in switches designed to pit him against 7-2 Rudy Gobert. All that was missing was the symmetry of his final point total; one more free throw would have given him 30, the same number he scored in his two previous gold-medal performances.
“This is one of those special journeys," Durant said. “When you're a part of a team that's evolving by the second, it's amazing to see. Each game we continued to grow. I'm grateful we all committed to it, we stuck with it and we finished it off.
“We had some unusual circumstances. We just fought through anything: 2 1/2 weeks away from our families, basically in a bubble. It was definitely different, so I’m glad we did the job.’’
No one should be more grateful than Popovich. For all his success in San Antonio as a five-time NBA champion and an all-time coaching legend, a loss in Tokyo would have been devastating. He was an assistant coach on the 2004 team and has lived with the disappointment. That loss didn’t help when Colangelo instead chose Mike Krzyzewski to lead a U.S. renaissance with a renewed commitment from elite players. When dominance was restored in Beijing with the Redeem Team, then bolstered in London and Rio de Janeiro, Popovich finally was summoned — and finished seventh in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Team USA’s worst finish in international competition. After the opening loss to France last month, the headline on my column said, “POP GOES THE DYNASTY.’’
Without Durant, it would have popped. “Every championship is special, and every group you’re with is special, but I can be honest and say this is the most responsibility I’ve ever felt,’’ said Popovich, who attended the Air Force Academy and served five years of duty as an intelligence officer. “I was totally frozen (during the game). I sat there scared to death. The responsibility is awesome, and I have felt it every day for several years. I’m feeling pretty wiped out.’’ He is so wiped out, apparently, that he refused to commit to continuing to coach the Spurs next season, saying, “You know what ‘sayonara’ means? That’s how I’m feeling right now.’’
All of which explains why Popovich would have dropped to his knees — “begged, cried, done anything I could’’ — if Durant had dropped out of the Olympics like the others. There was little to gain and plenty to lose in Japan, but Durant opted to play for his country anyway. The critics and haters, including actor Michael Rapaport, must respect him for that leap.
“KD is not special because he's so talented. The way he works on his game is more impressive," Popovich said. “The relationship he builds with teammates, the respect he garners, the joy he has in playing — it's like osmosis. It goes into all the players."
“We tried to make him work as hard as we can, but he’s Kevin Durant,’’ said Gobert, the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. “He’s going to hit shots that only him, in the world, can hit. I think he’s the best scorer in basketball. He’s going to do what he does, especially on the biggest stage.’’
“He’s fearless. I’ve said it before: He’s the most skilled basketball player ever. I mean that,’’ said U.S. assistant and potential Popovich heir Steve Kerr, who once played with Michael Jordan. “There’s nobody that’s his size, 6-11, that combines shooting and ballhandling skills and athleticism. You’ve never seen it before. This tournament was a perfect example of why you need the best players to win and win championships. And Kevin is the best player in the tournament.’’
The best on Planet Earth, too, with apologies to the Greek Freak. Said Colangelo, who broke down in tears when asked about Durant: “He is a very special guy. He loves the game. He loves USA Basketball. He's got that kind of character." One by one, superstars had called Colangelo to bow out of commitments. Durant never wavered.
After the loss to France, players were heard muttering about having to run Popovich’s “Spurs offense.’’ Durant knew it was time to lead, starting with a players-only meeting. “Taking a loss was tough. You know when you have a team meeting, you’re kind of at the bottom. Pop wasn’t there,’’ he said. “So we just worked our way up from there. Everybody just committed to doing what’s best for the group, no matter what.’’
The performances weren’t impressive. Other than Jayson Tatum, who showed up consistently? Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton had good excuses, having just finished up a grueling NBA Finals. But what happened to Damian Lillard? Was he too distracted by the offseason failings of the Portland Trail Blazers to concentrate on the friggin’ Olympic Games? The players may have been 6,000 miles away, but they knew via their phone devices how America was complaining. “We heard it over and over again,’’ Draymond Green said. “We turn on sports talk in America, and everybody was questioning us.’’
If anyone had a valid reason to give up, it was Durant. He could have protected his Achilles, his future with the Nets, but he preferred to protect his country’s place in a sport it always should own and operate. Green is the one who famously confronted Durant in their final season together with the Golden State Warriors, even calling him “a bitch.’’ Now listen to Draymond rave, realizing most of his hardware — two Olympic golds and two NBA title rings — is a product of playing with Durant.
“That’s a special, special man, and he carried this team like we needed him to, like he’s supposed to coming back for his third Olympics, all-time U.S. scorer,’’ Green said. “Kevin Durant is exactly who we thought he was. He’s one of the greatest players to ever play this game, one of the most special guys you've ever seen lace their shoes up and take a basketball court. There’s been a lot of guys to don this jersey. He’s No. 1.’’
You shrug. I shrug. They shrug.
But America also should be thanking Kevin Durant for rescuing Our Sport from itself. Might he now convince 150 million Americans to have their arms jabbed twice?
Jay Mariotti, called “the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes sports columns for Substack and a Wednesday media column for Barrett Sports Media while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts in production today. He’s an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and radio talk host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects. Compensation for this column is donated to the Chicago Sun-Times Charity Trust.