The US won the gold medal in Olympic men’s basketball yesterday with a 118-107 victory over Spain.
Culminating a three-year mission to end years of embarrassment, the US Olympic team survived a huge challenge from Spain.
After overwhelming everyone for seven games, the Americans led by only four points with under two-and-a-half minutes to play, then proved they could handle the close game that seemed would never come in Beijing.
PHOTO: AFP
Their prize was the first US gold medal since the 2000 Olympics.
“Much respect to Spain, but the US is back on top again,” LeBron James said.
Dwyane Wade scored 27 points for the Americans, who found a much gamer Spanish team than the one they humiliated by 37 points earlier in the tournament. Kobe Bryant added 20.
In a game so devoid of defense that it felt more like an NBA All-Star game than one with a title at stake, the Americans had too much offense down the stretch. Bryant converted a clutch four-point play with 3 minutes, 10 seconds remaining, holding his finger to his lips to quiet the rowdy Spanish crowd behind the basket.
Wade added another three-pointer that made it 111-104 with just over two minutes left and only then could the Americans relax a little.
They began to celebrate during a break after some technical fouls on Spain with 26 seconds left, then celebrated in the middle of the court when it was over with Born in the USA blaring out over the arena’s speakers.
“I’m proud of our guys. We played with great character in one of the great games in international basketball history, I think,” US coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
Nobody else had been close to the Americans in Beijing. This team’s only Olympic competition had been history, in a Dream match-up with guys named Jordan, Magic, Bird and the rest of the US team that dominated the Barcelona Games in 1992.
Forget comparisons to those guys. The Americans were lucky to be better than Spain yesterday.
Rudy Fernandez scored 22 points and Pau Gasol had 21 for the Spanish, the reigning world champions who were hoping to win their first Olympic gold.
US players appreciated the game Spain gave them. After the contest, they hugged the Spanish players. Bryant had an especially long embrace for Gasol, patting his Los Angeles Lakers teammate on the back.
Seeming to appreciate the moment, after congratulating Spain, the team joined in a circle, jumping up and down at center court and waving triumphantly to the crowd as Krzyzewski applauded on the sidelines.
The Americans had won their first seven games by an average 30.3 points, including a 119-82 rout of Spain. But they never had control of this game, giving up open looks from the perimeter and plenty of points in the paint.
But Bryant, who waited so long to finally wear the red, white and blue, hit two three-pointers in a big fourth quarter to add the gold medal to the only piece of hoops hardware he did not already own.
James scored 14 points, while Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul had 13 apiece.
Argentina won the bronze with an 87-75 victory over Lithuania.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier