LAS VEGAS — Stephen Curry drove to the basket, laid the ball in, got fouled and ended up on the floor after drawing contact from a defender. After noticing he was near the on-court photographers, Curry decided to go viral.
The 36-year-old guard posed for a few seconds — one hand on his hip, the other on the side of his head, all while giving those cameras a wide-eyed look — before getting to his feet.
The showman put on a show with the U.S. men’s basketball team Wednesday night, scoring 12 points in 19 minutes and helping the Americans beat Canada 86-72 in their exhibition opener ahead of this month’s Paris Olympics.
Curry is a two-time NBA MVP who has helped the Golden State Warriors to four league titles, but the talented shooter is getting ready to compete in the Olympics for the first time. Gold is always the goal for the U.S., but Curry doesn’t see any reason why every single moment has to be serious.
“Just having fun,” Curry said. “Got to the basket and I slid across. I was trying to get back up, but I got stuck, so I just wanted to pose and give myself a second. You know I like to have fun and enjoy myself, and it didn’t take long for me to find an opportunity tonight.”
There was a lot to like — and in fairness, plenty not to like — for the Americans in their first tuneup.
First of all, they won, 86-72. All 10 available players contributed; they all played from 17 to 21 minutes except for Joel Embiid, who was limited to 12 minutes only because of foul trouble. There were highlights — social media went wild for the Curry pose, as well as a LeBron James chase-down block that led to a 3-pointer for Devin Booker — and there were plenty of mistakes that can be quickly cleaned up.
“We needed to set a tone for how we want to play,” said U.S. coach Steve Kerr, who has been at the helm for all four of the Warriors’ titles won with Curry. “And I think we did that.”
Now the real work begins. The team was set to fly out Thursday to Abu Dhabi — the next stop on a tour that will take them to France — for a few days of practices and two more exhibition games.
Although he wasn’t in Las Vegas for the team’s four-day training camp that wrapped up Tuesday, Derrick White is expected to join the Americans soon as the replacement for Kawhi Leonard — who took part in the camp but not the game against Canada, which tipped off hours after his removal from the roster was announced by USA Basketball as a joint decision between that organization and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Leonard missed several of the Clippers’ games at the end of the NBA regular season due to a knee injury, but the change was still somewhat surprising after he said earlier this week that he felt fine and was “ready to go.”
The decision had been finalized Tuesday night, when USA Basketball was also celebrating its 50th anniversary at a gala that included Barack Obama as one of the speakers, with the former U.S. president telling the team about what it means to represent the country on the Olympic stage.
“It’s always a treat when you get to talk to one of the greatest people this world has ever seen, in my opinion,” James said. “His vision, his mindset, his words are always resonating, in more ways than one. To be able to sit down with a former president, a friend of mine that I really call a dear friend, it’s pretty awesome.”
Obama was also there Wednesday night, one of more than 20,000 people at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to watch a glorified scrimmage in which Curry, Embiid, James, Devin Booker and Jrue Holiday were in the starting lineup. It was the biggest crowd for a basketball game in the arena’s history, USA Basketball said.
There were “U-S-A! U-S-A!” chants from fans, there were past gold medalists in the crowd, there were past Olympic coaches such as Mike Krzyzewski sitting courtside.
Like Kerr said, the night set a tone. And now the Americans leave home for a month, on a quest for the country’s fifth consecutive Olympic title in men’s basketball.
“This is always a fun format when you get this collection of guys together,” Curry said. “It’s a test and a challenge to try and figure out the chemistry, just the flow and the rhythm.”
So far, so good.
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