After another gold medal, the US men's basketball program will now catch its breath

PARIS (AP) — The first practice for the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team after arriving in Paris was one of those workouts that those who were there, watching behind closed doors, will talk about for a long time.

Players were split up evenly. Go play, they were told. What happened next set the tone for the rest of the team’s time at the Paris Games.

“We warmed up and then it became competitive,” U.S. assistant coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And that’s when you realized, one, that this team really cares and that it felt the responsibility to play and compete at the highest level. And then secondly, the level of talent on that floor … we knew it could exceed all expectations.”

A couple weeks later, they won gold.

The mission was completed Saturday night when the U.S. won gold for the fifth consecutive Games, holding off France — in Paris, no less — 98-87. Stephen Curry scored 24 points, all on 3-pointers, while Kevin Durant won his fourth Olympic gold and LeBron James won his third gold and fourth medal overall.

And then the party started. Before long, it’ll be time to start thinking about how to do it again in 2028 when the Olympics return to Los Angeles. Grant Hill will be back as managing director for the men’s national team, and he’s already excited about what is looming.

“I’ve done a lot of things in my life,” Hill said. “And this is a thing that certainly consumes you, but it is incredibly rewarding.”

Especially when the team wins.

There will be changes between now and 2028. James will be 43 and likely retired by then (though with James, never say never). It might seem iffy for Curry and Durant to still be playing in four years, but again, who knows. Some players like Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo already have said they want in; others like Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton seem to be locks if they want to continue.

No decisions are set, and that won’t change for a while. Hill is going to take a well-earned break. The next major international tournament is the World Cup at Qatar in 2027. It’s safe to say that it’ll be sometime in 2025 when he even starts getting serious about putting together a group for that.

“Over four years, a lot can and will happen,” Hill said. “Now, getting away from it a little bit, just letting things play out and see how guys continue to develop and see what kind of season guys have over the next year or so. And then, at some point, you start that process all over again.”

When he took over, Hill said he wanted a pipeline for both players and coaches. People leave the program, others move up. Steve Kerr made clear when he agreed to replace Gregg Popovich as U.S. coach, it would be for the 2023 World Cup and these Paris Olympics. It would seem likely that the next national team coach will be either Spoelstra or Tyronn Lue, given how both were assistants under Kerr the last two summers.

And already, the player candidate pool for the 2027 World Cup in Qatar and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics has a slew of obvious candidates. Adebayo has said he wants to play and Davis — admittedly, with a new gold medal around his neck possibly swaying his mood — said Saturday night that he thinks he’ll play in 2028. Edwards, Haliburton, Tatum and Booker (who was incredible in these Olympics) will all be 31 or less when the Los Angeles Games roll around. Edwards will turn only 27 that summer.

Add some of the players from the World Cup team — Paolo Banchero, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart would all figure to be among the candidates from that list — and there’s already a slew of logical options. There will be more, many more.

“We love that, to have some of these young guys in the pipeline now and on the team so that they can be part of the next group,” Kerr said. “But really, we didn’t think of that when putting the team together. We just put the best group possible to win now and we’ll worry about 2028 in four years.”

USA Basketball announced in April 2021 that Hill would be the replacement for Jerry Colangelo as men’s national team managing director. Colangelo stepped down officially about four months later when the Tokyo Games ended, wrapping up a run of four Olympic gold medals and two world championships.

The job sounds simple, but it isn’t. The managing director is largely tasked with picking the best players and coaches to accept being part of a program where anything less than a gold medal will be considered failure.

“I don’t know if I fully understood what exactly all of it entailed when I was announced or even considering it,” Hill said. “It’s been a marathon — maybe an ultramarathon, one of those 100-mile races. But everything, the preparation, the game planning, strategy, logistics, there’s been some really great times and there’s been tough times. All of it has been absolutely incredible. It’s been more challenging and more rewarding and fulfilling than I could have imagined.”

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games