The theory of everything: USA’s latest dream team is true basketball nirvana
IIn the final scene of Spike Lee’s beloved, pantheon-settling sports film He Got Game, an incarcerated Denzel Washington shoots a basketball over the prison wall. The ball magically transcends space and timelanding on the Big State court and into the hands of his son, played by Ray Allen. The mystique of the ending remains polarizing, but it beautifully expressed a passing of the torch, a transfer of energy, in a way that few filmmakers before or since have done. Twenty-five years later, in an electric T-Mobile Center on Wednesday night, I was reminded of this moment when Team USA’s LeBron James grabbed a defensive rebound, saw Anthony Edwards running in transition and threw a full-court, quarterback-style pass to him that Edwards converted with a dunk on the other end: basketball’s present, and its soon-to-be past, throwing the ball toward its clear future. Two timelines, overlapping. It was poetry.
“It was insane,” Edwards told the Guardian when asked about the transcendent moment. “It’s insane, man, playing on the court with LeBron and Steph. It’s a dream come true. I remember watching them play each other in the Finals. So being in the room with them, being on the bus with them, everything. I was just soaking it all in.”
While he clearly enjoys the opportunity to be surrounded by his childhood heroes, Edwards showed his patented bragging rights earlier this week, saying he still felt like “the number one option”Even on a team filled with older, more experienced future Hall of Famers. And he’s not necessarily wrong, at least not if the early results are any indication. Despite coming off the bench in the United States’ first public appearance before the Paris Olympics, an 86-72 exhibition win over Canada on Wednesday, Edwards proved himself an invaluable contributor and arguably deserving of a starting spot, even as the youngest player on the roster.
Head coach Steve Kerr’s starting five, consisting (for now) of James, Curry, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Joel Embiid (who was subbed out after just 12 minutes), got off to a slow start. A Canadian team with a record 10 NBA players on its roster looked like the team with all the energy and muscle. That was until the Americans’ second unit came in. That unit featured Edwards (who will be 23 at the Olympics), Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum. The decidedly younger group injected much-needed defensive intensity into the game for the United States, which carried over into the starting unit’s subsequent performances and paved the way for a decisive U.S. victory.
The second half, after the energy injection from Edwards and co., made for euphoric basketball viewing. Sure, there was the inherent novelty of seeing so many all-time greats on the floor—the team is called the Avengers, and for good reason—and a rapturous crowd of 20,757 in the stands, a record for any game at T-Mobile Arena. There was former U.S. President Barack Obama casually taking in the show from a courtside seat, along with Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and a host of other retired NBA legends with Olympic pedigrees as special guests of USA Basketball. But beyond all that, there was an undeniable electricity coursing through the arena, because of one thing in particular: These guys, young and old, experienced and fresh, were clearly having the time of their lives there.
One moment that particularly illustrates this comes to mind: During a feverish fast break in the third quarter, as Team USA began to pull away from a lead it would maintain until the final whistle, James grabbed another rebound and tossed it to Curry in transition. Curry flew down the court, tongue wagging, the 39-year-old James in hot pursuit, before throw back to LeBron for a thundering dunk.
I gasped with delight, along with my media colleagues in press row, as the crowd was ablaze with awe-inspiring joy. A Steph and LeBron two-man game: will miracles never cease? And the old, friendly rivals, beaming at each other, were clearly enjoying the moment as much as anyone else.
“It was pretty amazing that at this point in our careers we can still showcase our talent, do what we love to do and give something back to the fans,” James told the Guardian when asked how it felt to join forces with a former foe with whom he’s had so many legendary battles over the years. “So it was an absolute treat because he’s one of the best players to ever play this game. I’m looking forward to the rest of the summer.”
Team USA has a few more exhibition games ahead of them before they begin their quest for a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal in Paris on July 27. They then travel to Abu Dhabi for exhibitions against Australia and Serbia, where (despite some very public protests by Jaylen Brown) by Kawhi Leonard replacement Derrick White, and hopefully a currently sidelined Kevin Durant. Then a pair of games against South Sudan and Germany next week at the O2 Arena in London. But with just four days of training camp and one glorified scrimmage so far, the U.S. men’s national team is holding out hope. “We’ve got a combination of guys in terms of skill set, age, size. We’ve got a very diverse group, and that helps us,” Davis, who recorded a double-double in the team’s first game, told the Guardian after the game. “LeBron, Steph, KD, are obviously the older guys. In the middle, it’s me, Jrue, Joel. Then you’ve got guys like Tyrese, Bam [Adebayo]Ant, who are younger. We have a good combination.”
Almost always, nostalgia exists only in the past. It is incredibly rare to be firmly rooted in the present, yet hyper-aware of how unique a moment you are occupying is. To see clearly that you are living in a time that will be spoken of with reverence by future generations: “I was there for That.” But as I watched the very best of basketball’s near past, present, and future collide for a fleeting moment this week, in a Marvel-esque shattering of the multiverse’s limitations, it occurred to me that this was indeed one of those moments. Gold medal or not, this is a team we’ll tell our kids about.