Team USA is the favorite, faces challenge of a sold-out pro-France crowd in Paris

Team USA guard Stephen Curry celebrates during the men’s semifinal against Serbia at the 2024 Paris Olympics at Bercy Arena on Aug. 8 in Paris. Manu Reino/Europa Press via Getty Images

PARIS – For guard Stephen Curry, it was the atmosphere in Boston’s TD Garden when his Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals. For LeBron James, it may be Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, when the Cleveland Cavaliers recovered from a 3-1 series deficit to the Warriors to win their only NBA championship. And for center Joel Embiid, perhaps it’s every time he walks into Madison Square Garden in New York City with his Philadelphia 76ers.

Whatever the toughest atmosphere was for Curry and his USA Basketball teammates in their careers, he believes they all need to channel their experiences to play host France in the 2024 Paris Olympics game in front a sold-out pro-France crowd Saturday night.

“I bet you all 12 of us can find one game where we went into a hostile environment,” Curry said after Team USA defeated Serbia 95-91 in the semifinals on Thursday night. “Whether it was LeBron coming into our place in 2016, whether it was us going to Boston, you name it. Someone is going to have a building that they had to go into and get a win. We are all are going to have to do it together against France on their home court.”

It’s amazing in itself that the Americans (5-0) and the French (4-1) are even in position to compete for gold.

Team USA was down 11 points 54-43 to three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić and Serbia at halftime of their semifinal game. The Americans were also down 76-63 entering the fourth quarter. But the U.S. was sparked by a wild comeback with great play on both ends to outscore Serbia 32-15 in the fourth quarter en route to one of the most remarkable wins in its history.

Team USA coach Steve Kerr said that “over 40 minutes our talent wore them down.”

“I’m really humbled to have been a part of this game,” Kerr said. “It’s one of the greatest basketball games I’ve ever been a part of. They were perfect. They played a perfect game. Our coaches were saying, ‘Villanova-Georgetown,’ for all of our older viewers and readers out there. They played the perfect game and they forced us to reach the highest level of competition we could find.

“And our guys were incredible in the fourth quarter, and they got it done. I’m so proud of the team. I’m humbled by just being part of it. It was an incredible competition.”

Curry, who had a game-high 36 points vs. Serbia, said, “To come back the way we did … I’ve seen a lot of USA Basketball, but that was special.”

France forward Guerschon Yabusele celebrates after the semifinal game against Germany at the 2024 Paris Olympics at Bercy Arena on Aug. 8 in Paris.

Christina Pahnke — sampics/Getty Images

Even as San Antonio Spurs star forward Victor Wembanyama and France advanced to the gold medal game, the team entered the week in disarray after playing Group B preliminary games in Lille.

The team, also called Les Bleus, had lackluster preliminary victories over Brazil and winless Japan. Against Japan, a miraculous late 4-point play was needed to send the game to overtime. The French also were beaten relatively easily by Germany 85-71 on Aug. 2. France coach Victor Collet and Detroit Pistons guard Evan Fournier took some verbal shots at each other. France center Rudy Gobert, the 2024 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, was taken out of the starting lineup and has played sparingly the last two games.

Since arriving in Paris, however, France has beaten a Canada team driven by NBA stars in the quarterfinals and a Germany team in the semifinals who won the 2023 FIBA World Cup. And it hasn’t been Wembanyama or Gobert who have led the way. Rather, the French have been energized in elimination games by Fournier, Real Madrid forward Guerschon Yabusele and Greece Panathinaikos B.C. center Mathias Lessort.

Yabusele, a former Boston Celtic, even has received “MVP” chants from the French crowd.

“We’re going to play team basketball,” Fournier said. “Those two right there, Mathias and Guerschon, they’re not NBA players. They’re not all-EuroLeague. But they are our best players the last two games. They’re basketball players. They are matchup players. They are going to adapt.”

“I love to win. It’s not about me. It’s about the team and accomplishing something together,” Gobert said.

American celebrities such as former USA basketball star Carmelo Anthony; rappers Snoop Dogg, Travis Scott and Quavo; legendary swimmers Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps; Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James; and filmmaker Spike Lee have sat courtside during the Olympics to support Team USA. But Saturday night, the sold-out crowd will be made mostly of French fans chanting to a drumbeat and singing loudly along to the popular Eurodance 1996 tune “Freed from Desire.” France is also expected to have its own celebrities, Premier League soccer legend Thierry Henry and Basketball Hall of Famer Tony Parker, sitting courtside.

“The coaching staff and I poked our heads in and watched the last quarter of each of the last two France games, Canada and now [Thursday] against Germany,” Kerr said. “The crowd was incredible. They kept playing that European anthem that I can’t get out of my head. Everyone knows the song. I literally took my phone out and [videotaped] the crowd because it was so special to see the energy and enthusiasm. It will be one of the most fun games I will ever be part of.”

“The atmosphere is going to be incredible. It’s what you dream of as a kid,” Gobert said.

The gold medal game will be a rematch of USA vs. France from the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games in 2021. The Americans defeated France 87-82 in Tokyo in 2021. The U.S. is a heavy favorite Saturday, but the match is on French soil.

“They are the most talented team in the world,” Gobert said of the U.S. team. “They have a team of Hall of Famers. They have a team full of guys who have changed or are changing the game of basketball. They’re the most talented team in the tournament.”

“We came up short three years ago in Tokyo. It was a close game for us. Whoever is in front of us, we can take it,” Fournier said.