HERE COMES A STORYBOOK, WHEN THE BASKETBALL WORLD NEEDED A REMINDER

Stephen Curry unleashed his three-point lasers for an entire planet, once again, just when the Americans needed them desperately as they blew off France and won their fifth straight Olympic gold medal

     PARIS — If we have a backbone in our sporting lore, a pellet that will be taken from basketball courts to permanence, it was showcased in finality for the planet. Stephen Curry was told he had to change his shot as a youth, so he did, and Saturday night, the best revolver the sport has unleashed did his usual burying: hitting four three-pointers in about two minutes and sending off France with a familiar good-evening gesture.

     Snooze, he shouted, burying his head above two hands.

     “The rhythm, the avalanche came, an unbelievable moment,” he said. “I have been so blessed. This ranks very high in the sense of relief.”

     Sans blague, as they say in French, which means no kidding. Without him, Team USA loses the gold medal of the Olympic Games and watches Paris shriek in a Moulin Rouge act. With him, after finishing his first four games making a ghastly 5 of 20 from beyond the arc, Curry wowed the overgiddy people and vibrated even those accustomed to his lasers. The Americans were in danger of collapsing, which would have been a stunning blow to our perspective of NBA basketball and whatever we are doing with the game in our country. “We might be the only team in the world where fans are ashamed of them if they get a silver medal,” said Steve Kerr, already shellacked with criticism about how he used his dozen megastars.

     But Kerr also has seen Curry, with the Golden State Warriors, change visions of their workplace with his endless, astonishing bombs. How else would he complete a woozy blur of inconsistent play, controversy in how Jayson Tatum was utilized and worries that Victor Wembanyama and his teammates would shock the world at Bercy Arena? He did so by moving his feet, getting open and swishing the damned ball as he has since we saw him at Davidson. He won the semifinal against Serbia by making 9 of 14 threes and scoring 36 points. He won the final by making 8 of 13 threes, which gave him 24 points in a 98-87 victory that gave the Americans a fifth straight championship.

     Afterward, when he savored those 17 hotties in crunch moments that prevented a devastating defeat, he stood during the medals ceremony and rallied fans to chant, “USA! USA! USA!’’ Then he sang the national anthem when teammates were passive. Then he helped his teammates chew the medals.

     “It’s insane. And I thank God for the opportunity to experience it,” Curry said. “It wasn’t easy, but damn, I’m excited. This is everything that I wanted it to be and more.”

     What happens in the middle of a barrage? “Your mind goes blank. You don’t really care about the setting or the scenario or anything. It’s just a shot,” he said. “We were able to settle down, and after that, it’s flow and confidence. And that was it.”

     At one point, very late, Curry made a request to the coach. He wanted the ball on a pick-and-roll with LeBron James. “I said, ‘OK, let’s do that,’ ’’ Kerr said.

     Are they happy now? Curry won his first and only gold in a career that is comparable to that of James, who wore gold sneakers. Both have won four NBA titles, but in their shining moment together, James brought infectious energy and unparalleled play at age 39 while winning the MVP award, according to FIBA. But he needed Curry to finish off the Europeans. “Super humbled that I can still play this game,” James said. “Played at a high level, played with 11 other great players and a great coaching staff and went on and did it for our country. We got our moment. It’s a basketball world. Everybody loves the game. We just hope that we continue to inspire people all over the world.

     Kevin Durant is officially Captain America, having won a record fourth gold. Joel Embiid toyed with the French crowd, which never will get over his place on the U.S. team, with his WWE gestures. Devin Booker brought pride. Anthony Davis brought defense. Tatum accepted his up-and-down role, even when Hall of Famer Bob Cousy tore into Kerr. And each one praised Curry, for the second time in three nights. Durant set the tone when he said, “Steph, man, that was a God-like like performance. It was one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen him play.” There was much more.

     “Stephen Curry ended up being the difference. It’s right up there with the greatest games of his career,” said Kerr, who helped create Curry’s greatness halfway through the last decade. “His shotmaking was incredible under the circumstances, in Paris, against France for the gold medal. This is storybook stuff. That’s what Steph does. He likes to be in storybooks.”

     “You just simply marvel in his talent,” James said. “Obviously, I've seen it before on the opposite side, you just gotta keep finding ways to keep getting him the ball.”

     “Big shots after big shots, the level of difficulty of those shots, and it was just tremendous,” said Embiid, who also was helped by Curry’s cheers when fans booed him at the podium. “Being his teammate, especially after playing against him and seeing him make those crazy shots the last couple of years, it's fun to be on that side.”

     At last, Wembanyama was productive with the ball. He entered the game averaging 37.5 percent shooting, 26.7 from threes, but he showed up when it mattered. That is, until he watched as Curry lit flames. He cried on the floor, hugging Durant. “It's a disappointment because we expected we could do it," France coach Vincent Collet said. “We have to recognize at the end they were better. We are very close ... when they make fantastic shots, that’s the difference. They’re still the best.”

     “Wembanyama was amazing tonight,” Kerr said. “He's soon going to become one of the best in the world, but we still feel like we have the most great players in America.”

     Said Victor, all of 20, perhaps to grow taller than 7 feet 5: “I’m going to enjoy the moment. I’m proud of my teammates. I’m proud of having what we’ve done here in France in front of our fans. I’m going to let it all soak in.”

     And what’s next? “I’m learning and I’m worried for the opponents in a couple years,” he said. “Everywhere.”

     Whoa.

     In Olympics play, Team USA has won 17 times in 20 tries. A loss would have been the worst of all, worse than Larry Brown not coaxing his young players in a 2004 loss to Argentina, worse than John Thompson’s failures in Seoul, worse than being gypped against the Soviet Union in 1972.

     The Americans won when they are required to win, unless they want to give up the mantle to the world the way the NBA’s MVP races have gone in recent years. They were fortunate to beat Nikola Jokic. They were fortunate to beat France.

     But they had Steph Curry. “I was smilin’, cheesin’, having the best time of my life,” he said, before he went deep into the night and lived larger than Paris.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.