PARIS — From breakfast with Giannis to a nightcap with LeBron, it was the best day of basketball ever in one place.
The Percy Arena – perhaps best known for hosting tennis and handball matches – is unlikely to have a moment like this, but welcome to Olympic basketball’s quarterfinals, a frenetic 13-hour hoops the likes of which have never been seen before.
Nothing against some of the best state high school rivalries or the Final Four or Rucker Park, but on Tuesday some sub-regional site was packed with more than 15,000 people for all four games like the first day of March Madness; A team’s boosters aren’t empty seats because they’re out to dinner.
These games showcase the world’s best players playing the most skilled and sophisticated basketball imaginable.
Oh, and it took two hours to play the games because the TV time didn’t end.
It was pure hoops.
Germany took on Greece in a match that kicked off at 11am domestically. Then Serbia roared back to defeat Australia in overtime, and France overcame Canada in front of a wild home crowd. Finally, as the clock neared midnight, the Americans finished off the day, running away from Brazil 122-87.
For Team USA, led by Devin Booker with 18 points, it wasn’t much of a challenge. The Americans used depth and talent to overwhelm Brazil, avoiding the slow starts that plagued them here. The only blemish was LeBron taking an inadvertent elbow above the eye that required four stitches. However, the Americans seem to be peaking at the right time, which is a good time, as the challenge is set to get substantial in their quest for a fifth straight gold.
France vs. Germany on Thursday and Team USA vs. Serbia will be in the semi-finals, which will be, somehow, even more intense. Or so we may believe.
Put it this way, 15-year NBA veteran Patty Mills hits a followaway jumper over the outstretched arm of three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic to send the Australia-Serbia game into overtime. , which is something outside of basketball heaven.
Fourteen 2024 NBA All-Stars played at Percy Arena on Tuesday. That includes six players who have won 13 of the past 16 NBA MVP awards — LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jokić and Joel Embiid.
Not to mention Victor Wembanyama was also in court.
They all played like a Game 7, because it was a Game 7 — one of the knockout rounds here, with everything from national pride to a medal at stake. Hard mistakes. Fight through screens. Fights in the block. Then there’s passing, shooting, cutting, intelligence.
The intensity of the games, the intensity of the fans, the intensity that those Olympic rings command.
You can hear it in the voices of bitter veterans who have been through it all. It is nothing else.
“I feel tired, honestly,” said Serbia’s Bogdan Bogdanovic, a seven-year NBA veteran.
“Best basketball players in the world,” said Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, last season’s NBA MVP runner-up. “It’s a very tough competition, if not tougher.”
Each game had a new crowd, each team with a new nationalism and energy. Can’t beat the French here, but chants of “USA, USA” and “BRA-chill” were everywhere late, if the result was ever in doubt.
Of course, the Serbs are ready to blow the roof off whatever building they are in.
“We are a passionate country,” explained Vasilije Micić. “Sentimental people.”
When the Summer Olympics come to Los Angeles in 2028, it will be one of the Games’ hot tickets.
David Stern would have loved every jaw-dropping drama and every ear-splitting scream. He created the 1992 Dream Team and inspired the world to get into basketball, and it’s here 32 years later.
The U.S. is the favorite to win another Olympic gold, but the race isn’t close, it’s more varied. A team playing the Americans is not a big game. Drama and competition are in themselves. The celebration of progress is real. Every game is elite.
The Canada-France game felt like Cameroon was playing indoors or inside Old Trafford, with drums, chants and chants cheering the host nation on.
NBA players were everywhere, even if a few tries from a Euroleague star or Australian Basketball League standout made the difference.
Sure, everyone knows Wembey and Rudy Gobert, but Victor only had seven points and Gobert was mostly recovering from finger surgery.
It didn’t matter. While the French put 6-9, 256-pound Mathias Lessort and 6-8, 271-pound Guerschon Yabusele in the game together, the Canadians struggled to keep their chin up. The all-knowing French crowd roared with delight.
If the U.S. meets France in the gold medal final, as is likely, it will be a road game.
“We are at home,” said France’s Frank Ntilikina. “We are home.”
Proof of concept that the Olympics can become a platform for truly global competition and a one-of-a-kind environment.
The rivalry is now special unto itself — future Hall of Famers diving after loose balls, MVPs hitting each other for rebounds, unlikely heroes hitting 3s as their countrymen sing in their honor.
Olympic basketball has come full circle here with the greatest quadruple header ever played… at least until they do it again in LA.
