Will Rio Gold Spark Change for Team USA’s Most Controversial Stars?

It was Team USA’s final possession of the first half Sunday. A foreign-looking white and orange orb zipped around in the sort of synergistic show that took the gold-medal game against Serbia from mismatch to sure thing.

Ball movement and teamwork represented the only things the U.S. men’s basketball team couldn’t consistently lord over its Olympic competition. And when the Americans shifted from unselfishly standing around to working with true unselfish purpose, well, the Americans looked a lot like the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors.

Kevin Durant sunk the three-pointer to cap that final first-half possession in the 96-66 U.S. victory—after five passes without a dribble. Durant made the extra pass to the corner, and Carmelo Anthony gave it back with the extra-extra pass.

It’s a 3-peat!USA Basketball​ wins their third-straight gold medal. For more #Rio2016: https://t.co/3nZ10QtWAW https://t.co/5pQdV6DdSR

— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 21, 2016

It was also a reminder that Durant and the revival of that Golden (State) Age is soon going to be everything. This was, bottom line, just a prelude to another NBA season.

The only thing we can definitely say about the U.S. men’s team? They were not unsuccessful.

The only thing that would’ve made basketball compelling amid this whirlwind of American success stories would’ve been failure. This team guided by the lead of Durant and Anthony avoided that.

These 12 guys thrown together—after 16 other guys declined to represent their country—were never going to be a truly harmonic group on the court. Mike Krzyzewski deserves kudos for figuring out various paths to victory, but you can bank on Gregg Popovich doing way more teaching and coaching as the U.S. coach in the future.

This national team was …

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