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Team USA Beats France For GOLD! · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: 17 of 26.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna repeat that one more time.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: 17 of 26.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: That is Steph Curry's three-point shooting in last game versus Serbia and the gold medal game versus France.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: 17 of 26.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is insane.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about how Steph Curry until last game had been struggling in the Olympics.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: He couldn't figure it out.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: The jump shot wasn't falling.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, him being the greatest shooter of all time, you know he was gonna shoot through the struggles.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he just put together an absolute masterclass.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: His last game versus Serbia, in my personal opinion, was the best individual performance in men's team USA history.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not just because he put up 30 plus points and Melo holds the record for most points in a single game, and I think he put up 37 in 15 minutes.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was a crazy performance.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: But given the stakes of Team USA being down by 17 at one point against Serbia for Steph Curry to put up with 35 points and an eventual win, it's huge.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in my opinion, the best individual performance we've ever seen.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the final, that last two and a half minutes, man.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: That last two and a half minutes, I don't even have words to describe the experience that we went through watching that.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Three-pointer after three-pointer in the last one that he heaved up.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: He just talked about it, how he did he shot that because he had no legs left.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's the shot you get, and that's the shot you make when you're tired, Wardell?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Two men closing out back left foot, throw it up, bang.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you know it was ridiculous because again, the stakes were at an all-time high because France stayed in this game.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: We got to tip our hands to France, and we'll talk about that later in the video.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: But when the shot goes up and it goes in on the opposite wing, you see LeBron James do this.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: LeBron James just experienced one of the it's it was just so very ridiculous.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Steph Curry gets his first goal.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's insane, man, um, how much sports can bring out the patriotism in me.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: On a day-to-day basis, it's like, you know, but with Team USA is in the World Cup, I'm like, go USA, go USA.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when they're in FIBA, go USA, go USA.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, last year we did the FIBA run.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't even meddle in FIBA.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that was one of the reasons why we put together the Avengers of Basketball.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they did not disappoint.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, some of these games was probably the Serbian game was closer than it probably should have.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Even the France final was closer than it probably should have been.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, that medal was still gold.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And not only did we we put together the Avengers of basketball to try to avenge the USA name because everybody in the world was catching up.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: We needed another goal to showcase that it was it was born here, basically.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I know that Nay Smith was Canadian, but whatever.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was born here and we're still the one.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: But not only did we put together that team, we just experienced like a last dance type of thing.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: LeBron James has said, and LeBron has said some stuff that he he's taken back in in the past, but this will be his last Olympics.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we just watched LeBron James lacing up, lace him up for the last time for Team USA.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin O'Reilly becomes the first American basketball player to have four goals in the Olympics.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's the all-time leading scorer in basket in USA basketball history.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And now, with his age, you could argue this is probably the last time he suited up for Team USA.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Steph Curry never suited up until now.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he's got his score.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we might have just watched the last of Braun, KD, and Steph Curry.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like the whole time I'm thinking about this, the entire run, whether it be the showcase games or the first round games or the elimination games, I'm thinking in my mind, this is the last time we could see these three play together.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And really the first time we've seen LeBron and Steph Curry play together, other than some um all-star games or whatever, whatever.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to take a single second of this for granted.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm there, I'm glued to the screen the entire, entire time.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm standing up.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: France go on their own little run.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Nicholas Matoon hit a big three to make the crowd go wild.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the crowd of France.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: They were electric as well.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Steph Curry comes down and hit a couple more.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm standing up.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm watching this with my OG.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: She's visiting.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm watching this with the fam.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: They don't really understand why I'm standing up and I'm screaming Ward Else for Curry's name so ridiculously.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because we just watched him have the best individual performance against Serbia and then have a two and a half minute stretch where it was an out-of-body experience.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't, I can't, I don't know, bro.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't want to turn this around and turn it back to an NBA topic because I'm happy that we got go.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: But how is how would a front office of the Warriors not trying to buy completely in this run of Steph Curry, bro?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's still ridiculously great.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I might make a video about the aging superstar in basketball and how it's exchanged now in 2024 versus what it was in 2006 or 2007 or whatever.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: But these aging superstars are still towards the top of the game.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: LeBron Zay's got to be 40, and you can argue that he's still one of the most five impactful players in basketball.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Arant is 36 years old, and we needed a basket the most against Serbia.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: He he cleared out, clear out, man.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I got this.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then Steph Curry, who's 36 years old, said I got us in the last two minutes, bro.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is so ridiculous.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And me and the guys on our podcast tried to put together the Team USA for 2028.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think that every single year, the conversations are true that the the other nations across the world are just catching up to Team USA.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, we still number one, rah-rah, rah, rah of the USA USA, but these other countries are catching up.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: You just saw France.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Francis had a great run after, in their showcase games, they were like 0 for 4 and they made it all the way to the gold and put up a great performance in front of their own crowd.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Serbia was in the FIBA uh finals last year and bronze this year.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Germany didn't meddle this year, but Germany won FIBA.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like there are so many different countries that are playing great hoops.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think about what that 2028 roster can look like.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, we don't have our next Braun, we don't have our next KD or Steph Curry, at least as far as we know.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: But again, it's four years down the line.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I just I'm so very happy about this.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also it's it's bittersweet because yes, we got the goal, but these are the last for those three dudes, but also the last NBA basketball or men's basketball we'll get for quite some time.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, well, we got a month and a half until training camp, which means that yeah, it's just a while.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So um, I tried to watch all of this Olympics, well, not just Team USA, but all the other nations as much as I can, and and try to just appreciate the hoops of what is what it was because now that it's over, I guess I could do some retrospective of how amazing this tournament was from um from the France versus Japan game.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Was it a phantom foul?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Was it not?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: From the comeback from Serbia versus Australia, and then today in the middle game to watch Jokic put together what the I think they said the fourth triple double in Olympic basketball history.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's just been time after time after time.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Durant coming out in that first game back from injury, going from what seven for seven from the field to start off, eight for eight from the field to start off.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: There were just so many great things that happened and saw Sudan having their run being uh individually funded by Lual Dang.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: There were just so many great storylines, and the ball, the hoops was actually elite as well.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: So this was, in my opinion, nearly the perfect Olympics.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I also just love the game of basketball that much.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like every Olympics would look, I'd be looking at it as the perfect Olympics.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm trying to figure out some other things.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Anthony Davis and the pink defense was so electric.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, anytime he put the ball on the floor, France was getting their hand in their kicker jaw, getting it out, getting it out, and stealing it from them.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: But defensively, he was letting nothing pass through.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought it was very interesting that Joel Lambi then playing a lot this game.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I kind of saw it coming considering like the matchups that Steve Kerr has been running, where if you're going against uh a Serbia that has a big bruising center, Joel Lambi's gonna play heavy minutes.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's more of a smaller, nimble team like France, because they have seven, four Victor Women Yama, but he's a smaller guy as far as his stature.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna run with the small amount of Bam out of buy on Anthony Davis.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was very interesting.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then Anthony Davis coming in and playing that defense was so elite.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Devin Booker.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've always liked Devin Booker, but this Olympic just turned me into another level of Devin Booker fan.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, today I just bought two new, and this wasn't because of the Olympics, but I bought two new colorways of the book ones, the purple colorway and then the snakes can Swiss colorway.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've been sleeping on them.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Bought both of them.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um he's just he was just so great all day long.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Drew Holiday hit a couple big shots down the stretch, which were really good.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And again, Braun, uh, I thought that now let's get to the actual game, right?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: In order for us to get to the point where Steph Curry saved America, the offense was really bad through that second half.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I guess through the whole game, if I'm being honest with you.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: But that second half specifically, a lot of the movements that we saw was non-existent.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was like Steph Curr was the only person that was moving because that's what his damn job is.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's always been a guy that's gonna move, move, move.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just like, hey, we're gonna give it to X player.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be Braun, and Braun is gonna dribble it out for most of the seconds, and we're gonna get a just one swing pass for a three.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and the shots were falling.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was a little bit worried against the game of Serbia, even though they were down by 17 points on one.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I never really felt like Team Yose was gonna lose.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know that sounds crazy, but I just always felt like Team USA was gonna storm back and win that game.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this one being the final, I know that we had the lead for pretty much the entire game, but there was part uh parts of it, I'm like, ugh, France can make some things happen.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Gershaw Yabusele can make something happen.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Gershaw has been great this whole run.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's been phenomenal.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if his his goal is to make it back to the league, but if I I think if he wanted to, he probably could make a roster right now, at least get a training camp to invite the way he was hooping.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then I read somewhere because I've been doing all the research about the Olympics, that the last three years in the in the um uh international basketball, he shot nearly 40% from three.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if Gersha Yahoo's selling, say the 40% from three, and he's a dog on both sides of the floor, Dancing Bear could could make it back to the league.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, who wasn't?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, PJ Tucker.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Look at PJ Tucker's basketball reference right now.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't really make it to the league to he was like 27, 28, too.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a career path for Gersha Yabusele to make it.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: But then again, sometimes players go to the international hoops and they turn into 30 times better version of themselves because even today, Amber Fournier hit Anthony Davis with a nasty slide step back three.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And Am Fournier right now was without a job in the association.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So take it with a grain of salt, but I thought that Gershaw Yabusele was amazing this entire time.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wimby hadn't had an amazing offensive Olympics until today.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he was great on both sides of the floor, but their guard play is just really, really bad at this point in time.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they got some people in the pipeline.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like even like, oh, these aren't guards, but like Alex Saarr and Richard Richard Shar, uh fridge-born players who were just, you know, top of this year's draft, could eventually make the team in four years, or the guy that's projected to be top five, Nolan Trifer, if I'm pronouncing that right, he is also projected to go top five in this year's draft.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, I think France should be getting better and better.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Wimby's not 20 years old, or he or did he just turn 20?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's either he just turned 20 or he's not even 20 years old just yet.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine if four years, he was super emotional as he should have been.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he was super emotional because it's not many times you get to play at home for a gold medal.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: He should be significantly better in four years, and those other guys should be better too.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: So France is a team that I'm expecting to be even better next time around.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the offense for the for the USA was just not as elite as you wanted to.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and my mom, who was visiting, is my witness.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: When things got really bad in that third quarter, I said, Why are we why is Steph Curry not touching the damn ball?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, sorry, mom, for the language.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Why is he not touching the ball?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then eventually he did.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he made it work.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um I just again, just in awe.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: I live I'm about to rewatch that whole fourth quarter again because that's how how amazing it was with all accounts.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I keep seeing this picture of Gershawn dunking on Braun, but I didn't see that happening in the game.