But to succeed in his heist, Bogdan Bogdanovic sensed he would need to take a different path to the ball. Around the red carpet.

He knew Nikola Jokic too well.

“I’m always trying to win against him,” the Clippers guard told The Denver Post. “That’s what you have to write.”

The play in question was a pivotal moment in Denver’s first-round series that ended up mercifully overshadowed by Aaron Gordon’s buzzer-beating dunk 75 seconds later. It was also a spotlight on one subplot of the series — two countrymen and friends facing off in the NBA Playoffs for the first time.

With 1:15 to play in Game 4 and Los Angeles trailing by one, Kawhi Leonard launched a 3-pointer from the right wing. Bogdanovic was stationed on the opposite side, unguarded because Michael Porter Jr. was helping off of him to put another weak-side body on Clippers center Ivica Zubac. When the shot went up, Zubac boxed out Porter on the left block. Jokic was alone in the middle of the paint. He had first dibs on the rebound.

But the space to Jokic’s left, between him and Zubac, was inviting Bogdanovic to occupy it. He had a free lane to crash the glass, a straight-line sprint to lodge himself on the inside of Jokic’s hip.

Instead, Bogdanovic tried to think like Jokic — to anticipate the opponent’s next move. It’s easier when the opponent is often a teammate.

“Honestly, I’ve learned from him that his place (on the floor), where he’s moving, he knows how to space himself for a good rebound,” Bogdanovic explained. “So that play, I knew I had an open middle. But I went on his right-hand (side), because I saw Zu on the left side.

“I’m thinking a thousand thoughts in a second, but that was that thought. I was like, ‘Uh, let’s go left, right, left, right — right!”

Bogdanovic nailed it. Jokic shuffled to his left to leverage the open space on his right, and Bogdanovic took the long way around the outside of the rotund 7-footer, surprising him and seizing the rebound. With a reverse put-back layup, the 6-5 guard gave Los Angeles a 97-96 lead, completing an unthinkable 32-9 run.

“We lost the game,” Bogdanovic said, “so I couldn’t (trash)-talk.”

Jokic and Bogdanovic were the glue that held the Serbian national team together last summer during a bronze-medal run at the Paris Olympics. Bogdanovic was the captain, Jokic the indispensable hub of offense. They both averaged more than 18 points per game. They stayed up until 6 a.m. together after their heartbreaking semifinal loss to Team USA, hanging out in the treatment room of their team hotel with a handful of other players.

“Talking a little about the game, and then talking about life,” Bogdanovic told The Post last fall. “Order a couple of beers. Maybe a bottle of wine. And talk. … Being there with friends, it helps you go through these moments. That����ap what we believe.”

Needless to say, this is different. Jokic and Bogdanovic have spent most of their NBA careers in opposite conferences, playing against each other only twice per season in a lower-stakes environment since 2020. Annual trips to Atlanta for the Nuggets were opportunities to catch up with a friend the night before a game for Jokic.

Playoff basketball is more tense, more ruthlessly competitive. The Hawks traded Bogdanovic to Los Angeles in February, making this first-round alignment of the Serbian stars possible. “We talk during the season,” Bogdanovic said. “We are trying to be pros now.”

He shot 42.7% from 3-point range in 30 games with the Clippers to finish the regular season, averaging 11.4 points, three rebounds and three assists off the bench. After a slow start to this series, he was a plus-22 in Game 4 and an 18-point scorer in Game 5.

As for Jokic, it’s been a pass-first kind of series, due to the crowds Los Angeles has shown him.

But he has always preferred it that way. Bogdanovic knows better than anyone. The first time they ever played against each other in 2013, Bogdanovic was an emerging star for the Belgrade-based EuroLeague team Partizan, and Jokic was playing for Mega Basket, a smaller developmental club in Serbia. “He was supposed to come to Partizan to play with us,” Bogdanovic recalled, “but he stayed on Mega because he had a bigger role.”

Even so, Jokic wasn’t a known entity as an NBA prospect yet, so opponents like Bogdanovic had no reason to double-team him from the perimeter.

It didn’t matter.

“We played in preparation games twice, and we played in-season twice. I didn’t like him,” Bogdanovic told The Post this week, laughing. “Because he was goofy, and he wasn’t hitting shots. He was just passing. … He could have scored one-on-one and everything. He was toying with (the game). That’s a good word. He was like toying, joking with it.”

Then he gets to his personal opinion on the matter.

It’s often a healthy skepticism.

“I hope we don’t go to 10-minute quarters,” the 10th-year Nuggets coach said this week in response to commissioner Adam Silver’s endorsement of a reduced game. “I hope we don’t put in a 4-point line. I hope we don’t become Barnum & Bailey, where we’re just doing whatever you have to do to keep viewership. Because there’s a history and a greatness to this game and a purity to this game that we can find a way to stay true to.”

During an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, Silver noted that he’s probably in the minority but described himself as “a fan” of four 10-minute quarters. He pointed out that the NBA is the only league that plays a 48-minute game, in contrast to international competition and the NCAA.

“Putting aside what it means for records and things like that, I think a two-hour format for a game is more consistent with sort of modern television habits,” Silver said. “People in arenas aren’t asking us to shorten the game, but I think as a television program, being two hours, that’s Olympic basketball.”

The informal proposal was swiftly met with a chorus of criticism from the coaching community. “Not a fan,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said bluntly. “That’s not a good idea. We are the premier league, in the NBA. Why are we conforming to anyone else? It’s not a good idea.”

Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, 67, acknowledged that his perspective is old-school ” As for Malone? He’s only 53, but he also tends to side with the traditional.

He rejected the notion that Denver has a modern-day rivalry with the 76ers or Timberwolves earlier this month when informed of the league’s efforts to market multiple Nuggets games as part of Rivals Week. He memorably called the 2023 All-Star Game the worst game ever played after coaching in it. And when he was first asked about Silver’s comments on Wednesday, his eyes narrowed at the thought of a shortened game.

“I guess just catching me on the fly, I would say, ‘Why?'” he asked the room of reporters, which explained the audience-based rationale.

“I don’t know. Do people even watch games on TV anymore? Serious question,” he said. “There’s all these streaming services, and I think people are watching the NBA differently now than they did 20 years ago. It was, you turn to your local TV station, you watch your local team, then you’ve got ESPN and all that. Now, how many young people watch games on TV in its entirety? They consume the game in a much different manner.”

The Nuggets joined the trend of sports franchises debuting subscription streaming services before this season. Altitude+ is operated by the team-owned regional sports network that broadcasts Nuggets and Avalanche games, available for a monthly rate of $19.95 in Denver.

“I give the league credit in terms of this,” Malone said, going to his usual refrain. “They’re always trying to figure out ways to keep the fans engaged, and to keep the league and the game in a great spot.”

While coaches’ news conferences around the league continued to buzz with other reactions, the Nuggets went on to play two games that aired nationally on ESPN. The irony of a hypothetical condensed-for-TV game was palpable.

In both New York and Philadelphia, opening tip was 10 minutes late.

They relived moments from their game that day — a heartbreaking 95-91 loss to Team USA in the semifinals of the Paris Olympics. They pondered how they would bounce back in the upcoming bronze medal game against Germany. Eventually, the conversation drifted away from basketball, and then returned to it, and then strayed again. Nikola Jokic was among the players who stayed up the latest, according to team captain Bogdan Bogdanovic.

“We have so many losses in life, so many wins, that I think we as the players learned that there’s no room for crying a lot,” Bogdanovic told The Denver Post. “There’s another opportunity tomorrow, and you’d better get ready. Because nobody will get you ready if you don’t get yourself ready. I think we had that mindset. And we were up late. We were up to, like, 6 or 7 a.m., talking.

“With friends, and being there with friends, it helps you go through these moments. That����ap what we believe.”

At risk of missing the medal podium altogether, Serbia tipped off again 28 hours later against Germany. What happened next for the close-knit national team was a blur of legendary proportions — 10 hours to kill between redemption and coronation, thanks to the awkward morning start time and the interval between Serbia’s game and the gold medal showdown. Ten hours to celebrate.

Jokic’s summer with the national team ended in glory, even after Team USA’s 17-point comeback that he described as the “hardest defeat” of his career. After medaling, the Nuggets center and his countrymen were turned loose in Paris until it was time to return to Accor Arena that night looking noticeably tipsy at the medal ceremony. Jokic will reunite with one of those friends, Bogdanovic, when the Nuggets take on the Hawks this Sunday in Atlanta.

The following is an oral history of Aug. 10, the day Jokic and Serbia won bronze and enjoyed a party for the ages:

Bogdanovic: “Before the game against Germany, it was like, ‘Yo, let����ap win this game, and we have the rest of the day free.’ It����ap early, but let����ap wake up, let����ap get this game, and then we have the rest of the day to spend with our family. We don’t know what we’re going to do. And everything after that happened spontaneously.”

Ognjen “Ogi” Stojakovic, Nuggets and Team Serbia assistant coach: “If we win that game, we are going to celebrate. Personally, I didn’t care how we were going to celebrate.”

Jokic finished the tournament with a triple-double: 19 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. Bogdanovic scored 16 points, shooting 3 for 4 from the perimeter. Serbia won, 93-83. The bus ride back to the hotel was joyous. The players chanted a song for 74-year-old head coach Svetislav “Kari” Pesic.

Stojakovic: “Players came up with that song last year when we were at the (FIBA) World Cup. They came up with that. They twisted the song … ‘Kari’s on fire, la la la la la.’”

Nikola Jovic, Miami Heat and Team Serbia forward: “There’s a soccer player, (Aleksandar) Mitrovic, who plays for the national team. And there’s a song that goes, ‘Mitro’s on fire!’ That����ap what we used to do back home. But when we won against Canada in the semifinal last year in the World Cup, I think it was Bogi’s idea to do that. And we just rolled with it.”

Bogdanovic: “It was a very tough game. When you win at the end, it����ap an unbelievable feeling. And it was, I don’t know, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. We are taking our time celebrating, all that. But we are slowly heading to the hotel, so we are like, ‘What do we do?’ … I think the Olympic organization told us we need to come back to the podium around 11 p.m., and our bus was going to be 10 p.m. at the hotel. So we only had one obligation, which was 9:30 to be back in the hotel.”

Stojakovic: “The biggest problem was actually that we didn’t have any kind of alcohol in the arena after the game. Because it����ap the Olympic Games, they didn’t allow it. My mom was like, ‘Why didn’t we think about that? Why didn’t we bring any rakija or beer or something to sneak inside?’”

There was beer at the hotel, where everyone convened for a quick team lunch. Then they went their separate ways, for a short time. The coaching staff had to attend an event at the Serbian House, the national Olympic committee’s hospitality club in the city, while the players walked five minutes to the Roberta Restaurant, which had been informed that the team would gather there, win or lose.

Alvaro Magalhaes, Roberta employee: “They called us about two days before, and we just closed the restaurant. We don’t care about medals. We care about people who want to enjoy our service.”

Jovic: “It started off slow. I mean, it had to start off slow. Everybody’s waiting for food and everything. But after about an hour, everybody was already, like, half-drunk. Players were calling their whole families. There was family there. Brothers, sisters, parents. So like, 3 or 4 p.m., we were already basically gone.”

Bogdanovic: “At that place, we said, ‘We are going to get historically drunk.’ We were joking. ‘Historically drunk, because we make history.’”

���ǰ쾱��:��“That was the plan. I don’t know if we made it, but that was the plan.”

Stojakovic: “When we came, players were already partying, so we tried to play catch-up. … As a staff, we were like, ‘Why did we go to the Serbian house? Why didn’t we go directly to the party?’”

Magalhaes: “We had some music from Serbia, too. There was a nice man singing around. … I didn’t know what they were singing, but it was good. Everybody was happy. Everybody was dancing. They ate very well in here, at the Roberta Restaurant.”

Bogdanovic: “We found a Serbian singer there, in Paris. I don’t know how we found him. He came and performed live.”

Jovic: “I thought it was Bogi’s sister, who found the band.”

Stojakovic: “I’m not sure who organized it. I heard that (it was) one of the players.”

Magalhaes: “Everybody was gathered on the terrace. It����ap a beautiful terrace. Plenty of tables. We just served them from our completely open kitchen, here at the Roberta.”

Jason Miller, Nuggets associate head athletic trainer (who accompanied Serbian Olympic team): “Serbians party hearty and hard. I wouldn’t say I hadn’t seen it before, because I’d been over there since June, and there had been two or three episodes that were the same way.”

Jovic: “I was so tired I had to leave at, like, 6. So I left at 6, went to the hotel, slept for an hour, showered and came back at about 7 or 7:30. By the time I came back, now everybody’s shirtless. It����ap just a crazy scenario. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

Stojakovic: “I was drinking beer, but people were drinking everything. Everything.”

Jovic: “I think everybody started out with beer, and then I don’t know. I had a few bottles in my arms. They just passed out bottles. Whatever you wanted to drink. You just had to drink. I guess that was the rule.”

The timeline is blurry, but the team occupied the small restaurant for about five to six hours. At one point, a police officer passing by the terrace asked for the volume of the music to be turned down. Tapas were served. “Everybody was very polite,” Magalhaes said. “They really enjoyed our service, our food and everything at the Roberta.” Then it was time to make the short walk back to the hotel, where players showered and changed into their official medal ceremony attire. They were running behind.

Bogdanovic: “We made it, like, right when the (gold medal) game was over. We almost got there late because we needed more time to get ready. And then at the ceremony, they didn’t trust us. We probably looked a little bit unorganized.”

Steph Curry, Team USA guard: “You knew it right away when you came through. They had a holding area in the back, and it was weird because they added three sections with pull-out chairs. We were in the middle. Serbia was on our left, and France was on our right. Obviously, France was sick about the game, so they were kind of down. We were pretty hype. But they were different. Serbia was a different type of energy.”

Jokic: “We felt that we were on the top of the world.”

Jovic: “We were interacting with the guys from USA because they were the closest ones to us. The guys playing for the USA were a great group of dudes. So they’re just joking with us and everything. … You just look at us, (and) we look funny as hell. We go out. We go on a stage. We feel like we were first, basically. We felt like we won gold.”

�Ѿ��������:��“I love that their philosophy was, with team sports in the Olympics, two medals are earned: gold and the bronze. The silver’s just handed to you for losing.”

Bogdanovic: “I remember that there was one famous actor, Omar Sy, who is from France. He acted in ‘The Untouchables,’ one of my favorite movies. And we saw him in the first row, and then another guy, Thierry Henry. One of the greatest soccer players ever, and one of my favorite players ever, too. So when we saw them, and we were on the podium and a little bit drunk. Me and my friend, we were like, ‘Man, look at these legends over there. They are legends.’”

The coaching staff watched from the baseline as players received their medals, many of them struggling to keep balance. Jokic in particular. It was the second Olympic medal of his career. He helped Serbia win silver in 2016, but that was before his MVP trophies, before his international fame. Now, he was the face of the team, with all the accompanying pressure. After leading the Olympics in points, rebounds, assists and steals, it was his turn to lean on somebody else, nearly stumbling off the podium. 

Jovic: “The greatest player ever, probably, coming from Europe. Not even from our country. The way he was celebrating, you could see that he was really emotional about it. He put everything into it. So he was like, ‘I’m gonna celebrate everything I did this year.’ He was all over the place. He was jumping up and down on the table (at the restaurant).”

Jokic: “I tricked them. To let them know. I tried to trick them to think I’m drunk. I was not really that drunk.”

Bogdanovic: “I don’t know (who was drunkest). For sure, Nikola, or the big guys. Our centers, they can drink a lot. Historically. Our bigs can drink historically.”

Magalhaes: “They were very tall.”

Bogdanovic: “At least we didn’t (screw) anything up. We showed up maybe five minutes late, but we were there. We did the whole ceremony. We respected everyone. Took selfies and all that.”

Jovic: “People from the Olympics, they were like, ‘You’ve gotta hand us the phones.’ For some reason, we were not supposed to have our phones while the medal ceremony was happening.”

Curry: “You could tell they were happy they were getting a medal. You could tell they also didn’t really want to be there because they had already had their fun, if that makes sense. And it took forever. So they were trying to hurry it up so they could probably get back to the party.”

That might’ve been the case if there hadn’t been a flight to catch the next morning. But it was almost time to go home. After a day of exultation, Serbia’s players and coaches mostly just wanted sleep. The gold medal game between Team USA and France had started at 9:30 p.m. local time. It was past midnight now. Everyone got back on the bus and waited to leave the arena. And waited. And waited.

Miller: “The traffic in Paris sucked anyway. And then we sat on the bus for like 20 minutes in the loading dock area and hadn’t moved one inch.”

Jovic: “Because the president of France was in the arena, we basically weren’t able to leave before him. So we’re in the bus. They’re saying, ‘You can’t leave. You can’t leave.’ We’re just trying to get back to the hotel. So I remember, everybody was like, ‘(Screw) this, we’re gonna walk.’ So we walked with the medals, without any security or anything. We just walked for, like, 25 minutes through Paris to get to the hotel after the ceremony. The whole team. We have medals around us. I have the flag with me.”

�Ѿ��������:��“Across the parking lots, across the park, and the party at the restaurant was still going with a few people, so a few stopped there. There were a few people still there, that didn’t go to the medal ceremony. … It was one big group and one last time together to kind of walk back with everybody.”

Jokic: “We’re with a group of guys that probably are gonna remember this our whole life. We’re all kind of a similar age. It was a great memory.”

Stojakovic: “All the pressure that we felt here in the Olympics, it����ap done. We did our job. So it����ap time for us to have some fun. It����ap something they put so much effort into, and all that emotion just went out at the moment when they were celebrating. It����ap euphoric, of course. Excitement. Pride. All the emotions in one.”

Jovic: “It����ap a different kind of feeling when you bring joy to your whole country. It����ap really a different kind of joy.”

The team flew commercial to get back to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Other travelers passed items to the players for them to autograph. They were seated in the middle of the plane, even Jokic. “We’re all like one,” Jovic said. “If one guy is not in the business class, nobody’s gonna be in the business class.” A couple of days after their return, they celebrated on the balcony of City Hall in front of a massive crowd. And back in Paris?

Magalhaes: “We enjoyed it the same as the players. I follow most of the teams, especially the Americans, the NBA. … I keep recommending to people who walk past on the street, I say, ‘Hey, Serbian team ate here.’ We call that marketing.”

I’m not talking about crowd noise. I’ve covered SEC football. I’ve been in louder stadiums.

But in terms of sheer joy? I was stupefied by Team USA vs. Serbia at the Paris Olympics.

First, to clarify: This was the group stage opener, which Team USA eventually won 110-84, not the semifinal rematch that turned into an instant classic. It’s probably relevant context that neither team was in danger of elimination from the tournament at this point, that spirits were high regardless of what the result was going to be.

Still, my prevailing memory will always be the slow realization that came during the first quarter.

I was there on vacation, not business, hence the elapsed time between attending the game (July 28) and finally sitting down to write about it (Aug. 9), which I’ve been meaning to do as a sort of delayed postcard to Denver Post readers. (I’m not even sure this qualifies for a Lille dateline anymore, but it looks cooler that way.) I was traveling to London for the first time, and the group stage of the Olympics was located an 85-minute train ride away through the Chunnel — convenient enough for my girlfriend and me to go hang out in France for a couple of days.

Anywho, waiting this long to write about an event is almost always a cardinal sin. People don’t want to read about something that’s not even relevant anymore. But I got lucky this time: Thanks to my procrastination, a lesson from France feels twice as apropos to the moment.

Team USA started slow. The Serbians smelled blood, or complacency, it seemed. They jumped to a 10-2 lead. In my section, I was surrounded mostly by Serbian fans who made the trip across Europe. They were ecstatic.

Even during the interruptions in their momentum. Two minutes in, Nikola Jokic committed a turnover. The ball found LeBron James in transition with nobody pursuing him. I missed the slam dunk because everyone around me was suddenly rising to their feet in anticipation. A smorgasbord of European fans — Serbs, French, other neutrals — pumped their fists and hollered and high-fived one another. I was baffled.

Team USA’s second basket was even more rousing: a Steph Curry 3-pointer. As soon as he squared up to shoot, the entire section stood in unison again, thrilled by the spectacle and unconcerned by the ramifications on the scoreboard.

By the time Kevin Durant checked into the game and started shooting lasers out of his eyes, it had finally dawned on me that I was witnessing a spiritual experience for overseas spectators — that most of them had probably never seen James or Curry or Durant with their own eyes. That this might even be their only chance.

Might as well cheer like it, regardless of national allegiance.

I was reminded of those fans and their gleeful recognition of basketball royalty this Friday when I opened Twitter (usually a big mistake) to find people litigating whether Nuggets fans should’ve been rooting for Serbia or Team USA in the semifinal. Should Jokic’s contributions to Denver outweigh love of country? Should the American big men who are Jokic’s foils in the NBA be regarded as opponents again in this context, or should the jersey they wear take precedence? Should basketball fandom ultimately be about loyalty to a team or a player?

I actually think those are pretty fascinating and nuanced questions, though the danger of social media is that they are reduced to fodder for name-calling and general vitriol.

I know people who’ve casually rooted against Team USA at these Olympics — but only in basketball, not other sports — because their default mindset is to cheer on an underdog. The tradition of the American superteam is as Goliath-ian as it gets; I can see how that might eliminate the spontaneity of victory, and therefore the enjoyment. I also have friends who were previously indifferent to Olympic basketball but got invested in it this year, entirely because of the “Last Dance” element for LeBron, Steph and KD. Anyone who’s watched their careers over the last 15 to 20 years can attest there’s an emotional quality to them uniting for the first time as gray-haired teammates. And they captured unforgettable magic in the final moments of Thursday’s comeback, each contributing clutch moments to a 95-91 win over Serbia.

I’ve read social media accounts from Coloradans who experienced a crisis of fandom during that comeback, suddenly not wanting a gold medal to slip through Jokic’s fingers. I know others who had no crisis at all. They were comfortably backing Serbia. Durant himself logged on to poke fun at that faction of “cornball” Nuggets fans — if nothing else, an amusing reminder that all of this is entertainment. It’s not that serious.

So my mind drifts back to Lille, and the Europeans who wanted Serbia to pull off an upset but couldn’t resist the delight of a LeBron dunk. The basketball enthusiasts who wore random vintage NBA jerseys that had nothing to do with either national team. The pocket of my section that eventually started loudly cheering every time Joel Embiid did something good, seemingly for no other reason than to cancel out the boos of the French. The fans of Japan two days later who took out their phones in awe to film a home-crowd rendition of “La Marseillaise” during a timeout, even though Rui Hachimura had just been blasphemously ejected. (I filmed it, too. Felt like I was in Rick’s Café Américain. Catchiest national anthem by far.)

And the travelers from Serbia who were sitting next to us one evening in the town square, eagerly wishing specifically for a Serbia-USA rematch later in the tournament. Sure, that would probably be a death sentence for Serbia, but wouldn’t it be awesome to see Steph one more time?

The most refreshing part of the atmosphere around Lille was the passion for basketball that left self-seriousness at the door. That’s a bigger distinction between the Olympics and the NBA than any rule difference if you ask me.

It’s easy to understand why. The Olympics are mostly absent from our minds until they’re suddenly on TV once every four years. The NBA is a constantly breathing life force, with narratives and character arcs.

All that stuff is enthralling and worth the emotional investment, don’t get me wrong. (Why would I be an NBA reporter if I thought otherwise?) But it’s also fun to embrace the different vibe for a couple of weeks.

Root for a national team or don’t. Cheer for players on one side or both. Have double standards if you want. Don’t take yourself too seriously. There are no wrong answers to the fandom dilemma. Do what makes you happy. Enjoy the basketball, because the basketball has been great.

For nearly two hours Thursday afternoon, Denver divided along party lines that had nothing to do with Democrats and Republicans.

Team USA faced Serbia in the semifinal round of the men’s basketball tournament at the Summer Games in Paris. Those who view the Olympics only in colors — red, white and blue — cheered eagerly and anxiously for the Americans. Those in Denver who waited 47 years to celebrate an NBA championship found themselves pulling for the Nuggets’ three-time most valuable player Nikola Jokic.

What unfurled was a classic. Team USA overcame a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit, advancing to the title game against France on Saturday with a 95-91 victory.

Admit it. Many of you were disappointed. Jokic is our local treasure, the Nuggets’ answer to John Elway. Even if you were pulling for the Americans, you did not root against Jokic. How could you? Complicating matters is the fact that Team USA features so many players that Nuggets fans detest.

LeBron James? He is ageless, one of the greatest ever, but known in Ball Arena for his Fine Whine.

Joel Embiid? He has not played in Denver since 2019, ducking matchups with Jokic. When I asked the 76ers star about facing the Nuggets star in the Olympics last month, he responded, “I don’t care about Jokic.” Unless, of course, the game is in Philadelphia. On his terms.

Devin Booker? Does “Suns in Four” ring a bell?

Steph Curry? OK, he doesn’t froth us in anger save for the annoying chomping of his mouthpiece.

The American men are seeking their fifth straight gold medal. USA coach Steve Kerr insisted his current roster includes 12 Hall of Famers — a boast that has grown increasingly questionable over the past month.

Jokic played with zero All-Stars on Thursday, though Bogdan Bogdanovic performed like one with his sharp-shooting and razor-tongue taunting of former Nuggets legend Carmelo Anthony in his courtside seat.

As a reminder, this is not the 1992 Dream Team. It is not the 2008 Redeem Team. They almost became the Meme Team.

Had the Americans lost with Celtics star Jayson Tatum never taking off his sweats, the postgame questions would have created squirms. Even Draymond Green called out Kerr, his Golden State Warriors coach, posting on social media, “Sometimes you have to scrap them rotations.”

The world has closed the gap. There are only inches left. Little margin for error exists. However, in Denver, we already knew this. Jokic is the great equalizer. Nobody elevates teammates like him. He could play with four fire hydrants and post a triple-double.

“Big Honey really the best player in the world! Way to fight 15,” tweeted former Nuggets guard Bruce Brown, who made millions in free agency by playing alongside Jokic for one golden season.

We watch Jokic play basketball for the same reason we stare at the Louvre’s paintings and track the sunset behind Longs Peak. It is art, his passes, shots, picks and blocks providing a deeper meaning because of his patience and unselfishness.

Team USA beat Serbia for the second time in Paris. Escaped is a more apt description.

The Serbians played the Americans even in Jokic’s 31 minutes on the floor in their group stage opener — and were outscored by 26 when he was on the bench. The next time they met in the knockout round, Jokic played all but 2 minutes, 19 seconds of the contest while battling foul trouble — and Team USA won by only four.

Jokic’s brilliance (17 points, five rebounds, 11 assists) left the Americans staring at humiliation with 3:06 remaining on Thursday.

At that moment, Embiid dribbled the ball out of bounds. Embiid was partly to blame for the Americans trailing by 17 in the first half. His defense wasn’t good enough. But he accepted the challenge and delivered in the second, posting 19 points despite the French fans booing him for not playing for their country and medal-chasing with the Americans.

Leading 86-84, Serbia, the better team for three quarters, had an opportunity to widen its advantage with a wide-open 3-pointer with 2:32 left. The knuckleball clanked off the rim. Serbia made 15 of 29 from behind the arc through the first three quarters and missed all nine of their attempts in the fourth.

This miss spurred a stirring rally from American basketball royalty. While Jokic was the best player on the floor, Steph Curry, suffering through a slump in his first Olympic experience, was the best shooter. He nailed a 3-pointer, giving the Americans an 87-86 lead.

Just like that, Team USA’s dominance returned. James started and finished a fast break, steaming down the lane for a reverse layup. Curry followed with a bucket, part of his game-high 36 points. And Kevin Durant caused a backcourt violation with his rangy defense.

Jokic needed help.

Instead an earlier six-point possession by the Americans that shaved the deficit to 78-73 — Jokic was called for a foul after running into Anthony Davis as Durant made a 3 — came back to haunt him. And his coach Svetislav Pesic let him down after a Jokic basket drew Serbia to within 93-91 with 23 seconds left. Common sense demanded a foul if there was no steal on the inbounds. Instead, the Americans drained 15 seconds off the clock, squashing any chance of a historic Serbian upset when Curry nailed two free throws.

The Americans failed to win gold in 2004, which forced officials to address dysfunction and recruit better players. In 2008, Spain offered a scare before Kobe Bryant saved them.

This was different. Our best are on this team. The Americans opened as 17-point favorites. And yet with a few minutes remaining, LeBron was in danger of becoming LeBronze.

There was one reason why.

Jokic will only be 33 years old in 2028. Americans, you have been warned. Denver will be a fractured city again when Jokic seeks revenge in Los Angeles.

He looked up and saw a throng of reporters awaiting in the area reserved for media members, armed with questions about how Serbia and the NBA star keep surviving in the face of elimination.

But Jokic didn’t have much to say.

“Niko, one question?” a reporter asked.

“No, thank you,” he said quietly as he strolled past, offering a fist bump to another nearby reporter.

It wasn’t a surprise or a slight. Jokic has yet to answer any questions from the media during the .

Jokic prefers to do his talking on the court in France.

“He’s great. But he doesn’t like to talk to media — you know that,” teammate Bogdan Bogdanovic said of the Denver Nuggets star. “In the NBA, if he doesn’t talk to media, he’ll get fined. But here, there are no fines. Here, it����ap voluntary. He says, ‘I don’t need to.’ No offense to you guys.”

It hasn’t stopped the three-time NBA MVP from leading Serbia to a semifinal matchup with the four-time defending gold medal-winning U.S. team. They square off Thursday.

Serbia is aiming to be on the Olympic podium for the first time since the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, where it won silver. That was the first Olympics for the then 21-year-old Jokic, who was coming off his rookie NBA season.

In the eight years since, he’s risen to one of that league’s preeminent stars, adding an NBA championship (2023) to his resume.

But he’s yet to reach the pinnacle of the Olympics.

The Americans eased past Jokic and company during their matchup in the group stage of the tournament, posting a 110-84 victory in the opening game for both teams. The x-factor in the rematch could be Jokic, who had 20 points, five rebounds and eight assists in that loss.

During the 30:45 minutes he was on the court against the U.S in that game, the teams both scored 81 points. In the 9:15 he was on the bench, Serbia was outscored 29-3.

Jokic also is coming off a strong effort during Serbia’s 95-90 overtime win over Australia, in which his team erased a 24-point deficit in a game that saw Jokic post 21 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists. That outing came after Serbia was tested during its final group stage game, overcoming a five-point, fourth-quarter deficit to beat ranked 33rd in the world.

“He stays focused for all minutes on the court,” Serbia guard Vasilije Micic said. “If he can do that, we all can do that.”

Bogdanovic said Jokic has been their catalyst.

“He makes the game easier,” Bogdanovic said. “Nothing is easy, of course, but he makes it easier. It����ap fun to play with him.”

___

AP Summer Olympics:

PARIS (AP) — France had an ugly couple of days following its .

It turned them into possibly its prettiest performances of the Olympic tournament so far.

Guerschon Yabusele scored 22 points after being inserted into the starting lineup, Victor Wembanyama had 12 rebounds and France beat Canada 82-73 on Tuesday to advance to its second straight men’s Olympic basketball semifinal. Wembanyama finished with seven points, five assists, three steals and a block.

Isaia Cordinier added 20 points for France, which is aiming to add to its medal haul after winning silver in the Tokyo Games in 2021. It will meet Germany, a winner over Greece, on Thursday.

“We had a lot of time to think, to fix things, and the whole team was just so dedicated to fixing everything,” Wembanyama said. “Now we’ve got a good base to build on for the final phase of the tournament.”

French coach Vincent Collet pulled four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier from the starting lineup. Gobert played just four minutes after suffering an unspecified injury in practice. Fournier didn’t see the court until late in the first quarter. His benching came after Collet took issue with some critical comments by Fournier after the Germany loss.

Fournier finished with 15 points, saying afterward there is no ongoing issue with his coach.

“When you have guys that have the same goal, that are being competitive and trying to win, it’s pressure,” Fournier said. “It’s part of the game. … You just have to handle stuff like that. And that’s what we did there.”

Wembanyama, Yabusele, Cordinier, Nicolas Batum and Frank Ntilikina started Tuesday. The group gave the team an energy boost, with France taking a 23-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Canada cut what had been 19-point second-half lead for France to 71-66 with less than three minutes to go. But the rally stalled there.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada with 27 points, and RJ Barrett added 16. Canada has not reached the Olympic final four since 1984.

“The start obviously put us in a hole,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I think we won the rest of the game after the start. But when you start like that, it’s hard play against any team.”

With Canada limiting Wembanyama’s touches, Yabusele and Cordinier carried the offensive load for France.

France took an 11-point lead into the fourth, when Wembanyama, Gobert and Batum combined for just three points.

Canada cut the deficit to 71-66 on a steal and dunk by Lu Dort.

It was 73-66 with a little more than a minute to play when from just inside the half-court line with the shot clock winding down.

Serbia 95, Australia 90, OT

Nikola Jokic had 21 points and 14 rebounds, and Serbia surged back to beat Australia in overtime to reach the semifinals.

Bogdan Bogdanovic added 17 for points for Serbia, which rallied from a 24-point first-half deficit to set up a meeting with the U.S., which easily , 122-87

Serbia is aiming for its first Olympic medal since the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, where it took silver. That was the first Olympics for a then 21-year-old Jokic.

Bogdanovic acknowledged doubting whether they’d complete the comeback.

“Honestly, we didn’t keep cool,” Bogdanovic said. “But we knew we were down and we needed to find some momentum and rhythm. … They had the whole momentum of the game. As I said, this is the biggest pressure of the tournament. Quarterfinals. You know if you lose, you’re out.”

had 26 points — but just six after halftime — for Australia, which won the Olympic bronze medal in Tokyo three years ago. Josh Giddey added 25 points.

“I thought we threw everything at them,” Mills said. “We’re playing against world-class individuals. World-class teams. World-class coaches. And this is why you play international basketball. It’s a different sport than any other league around the world. It brings the best out of everyone.”

Jokic put Serbia on top 91-90 with just over a minute left in overtime. Australia’s Jack McVeigh then misfired on its next possession. Serbia got the ball back to Jokic, who converted again.

Australia attempted to get the ball into Mills on the inbounds, but it was knocked away and stolen by Serbia.

Serbia stormed back in the third quarter and retook the lead late, 61-60, on a jumper by Bogdanovic. The basket capped a 40-14 scoring run.

Serbia led 67-65 entering the fourth and was up 81-78 when Giddey hit a short jumper to cut the margin to a point with just over a minute to play in regulation.

Australia rebounded a Bogdanovic miss, but Mills misfired on the other end. Australia forced a Vasilije Micic error, but he was fouled on the rebound with 9.8 seconds left. He then connected on 1 of 2 free throws.

Australia got the ball into Mills, who lost his dribble, gathered and hit a fallaway jumper to send the game to an extra frame.

After the match, Australia head coach Brian Goorjian confirmed he would step down.

“This was always the plan … I think I’ve been an important piece of this process and it’s time to move away,” Goorjian said. “When I get off the plane, I’ll walk away feeling proud of my contribution over the years I’ve been involved with the Boomers.”

The 71-year-old, California-born Goorjian led the Boomers to four Olympic tournaments in his two stints as head coach, from 2002-08 and 2020-24.

Germany 76, Greece 63

Franz Wagner scored 18 points and Germany overcame a sluggish start to beat Greece and advance to the for the first time.

Dennis Schroder added for the reigning World Cup champions, who will face the winner of France and Canada on Thursday. Germany’s previous best finish at the Olympics was seventh place in 1992.

Germany is unbeaten at the Paris Games after going 3-0 in the group stage.

“I think everybody on the team knows that we’ve got a special group, and I want to get the most out of this,” Wagner said.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had , which was denied its first semifinals berth in Antetokounmpo’s first Olympics appearance.

Greece had 15 turnovers, leading to 20 points for Germany.

Wagner entered the quarterfinals averaging a team-high 22 points per game but struggled to get going.

Greece led by 12 at one point —- the first time Germany had trailed by 10 or more points in the tournament. But Germany settled in and used a big third quarter to take a seven-point lead into the fourth. Germany started the final period on a 13-5 run to increase its lead to 72-57 with 1:50 remaining.

___

AP Olympics:

His full-time job is system engineer for a defense and space contractor.

Barry, who will take the courts at the Paris Games searching for a 3×3 gold medal for the U.S. men’s team, has an undergraduate degree in physics and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering. So, is he a rocket scientist? A nuclear physicist?

“Scientist, engineer, problem-solver, take your pick,” said Barry, with a slight chuckle and a wink.

As for what his work entails with the aerospace and defense company L3Harris Technologies, Barry is tightlipped.

“I’ve talked to L3Harris and they’ve said to not give too much specifics in terms of programs that we’re working on for clearance and security reasons,” he said. “But we have a great international compliance and trade security. (And) they briefed me on all this stuff and just said kind of leave it at systems engineering.”

When not with teammates Jimmer Fredette, Kareem Maddox and Dylan Travis preparing for the Olympics, the son of Hall of Famer and NBA champion Rick Barry is often on his laptop working on projects for L3Harris Technologies.

Because of the team’s international travel in the run up to the Paris Games, Barry would be taking zoom calls and doing his day job in the middle of the night while the rest of the team was sleeping.

The 30-year-old Barry, who starred at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, appreciates the support he’s received from the company as he’s prepared for the Olympics. He’s on vacation from his job during the games to devote his full attention to the chase for gold.

“Really fortunate to work for that company and what they’ve allowed me to do,” Barry said. “And I also think that they’ve really matched up with the Olympic spirit because they protect our U.S. war fighters abroad and kind of bringing that American spirit is really cool.”

Barry was interested in science from a young age, and despite being born into a basketball family, his mother Lynn Barry made academics the top priority in their home.

“She would always say: ‘You never know what����ap going to happen with sports in terms of injuries or when might be your last game,’” he said. “So having … a career that you’re passionate about and can kind of have an identity outside of sports means a lot to me. Because now, when the ball does stop bouncing, I know that I have a passion and a job that I can go back to that I find fulfillment in and can really enjoy that for the rest of my life.”

While Barry’s teammates appreciate his intellect and attention to detail on the court, there are times where they tire of him correcting them off it.

“That����ap never fun,” said Fredette, a Littleton resident. “He’s always trying to be like no, this is how you say it, or this is the right way to do it. So, he’s always making sure that we’re on our Ps and Qs.”

Still, it����ap all love between Fredette and Barry.

“You can see it when he plays on the court, he has a similar thinking aspect of how he likes to play the game,” Fredette said. “So, he’s obviously one of my best friends — love the guy — and don’t tell him I said it, but he’s super smart.”

Though his scientific brain is most often used for that top secret government work, he’s also used physics to justify an unconventional part of his game. His father famously shot underhand free throws or “granny shots” and he’s done the same throughout his career.

“There’s been a bunch of physics articles that have come out in terms of it����ap a more repeatable motion,” Barry said. “When you shoot free throws overhanded your wrist, your elbow and your shoulder all have to fire at the correct time and move in to create the proper trajectory and launch angle and arc. Versus for an underhand shot, it����ap really just your shoulder.

“So, with one joint, you’re really simplifying the shot.”

Barry’s family is with him in Paris as he’ll try to help the U.S. men have a better outcome than they did in the last Olympics. The men didn’t qualify in the sports debut at the Tokyo Games — though the American women won gold.

He’ll also have a room full of scientists rooting for him back in Melbourne, Florida. His co-workers hosted an ice cream party as a sendoff before he left for France where everyone wore T-shirts they had made in his honor.

“It said: ‘Go Canyon,’ and then had a picture of the Eiffel Tower with a satellite orbiting instead of the basketball,” he said.

And when he returns to Florida, he hopes it����ap with some special hardware.

“I would love nothing more than to come back to that office with a gold medal,” Barry said, “and let all of them feel it and take pictures with it.”

For now, that presumption persists, with another American superteam of cross-generational Hall of Famers gearing up for the 2024 Paris Olympics. But at the very minimum, it should be more fun than usual to watch their path to the championship. International growth for the sport has been exponential. Several of the NBA’s best players are suiting up for other countries this summer, including Nikola Jokic for Serbia.

Speaking of which: The Nuggets’ locker room is gradually transforming into an Olympic Village right now. Jamal Murray is set to be a first-time Olympian, and the team recently announced the signing of free agent Dario Saric. With DeAndre Jordan likely to return on a new contract, the roster is about to feature five players who have been Olympians for five different countries. (Make that six Olympians covering each of the last four Summer Olympics if Russell Westbrook comes to Denver this offseason.)

(Can’t see chart on mobile? Click here.)

*Has not signed with the Nuggets at this time | + Shooting splits: FG%/3PT%/FT%

This got The Denver Post braintrust (me) wondering: What is the best possible 15-man basketball roster that can be formed today using 15 different nationalities?

Only one player per country is allowed on this All-World Team. To keep this simple, if a player has previously competed for any version of a country’s national team (senior, junior, etc.) or committed to playing for said national team in the future, that player is eligible to represent his chosen country. For example, Joel Embiid is a committed and active member of Team USA, so he can be used as the U.S. representative in this exercise, but not as the French or Cameroonian representative.

If a player has not publicly chosen a country to represent in international competition, the roster-building committee (me) will defer to his country of birth .

The All-World Team depth chart must consist of exactly three players at all five positions, making this not quite as simple as choosing the 15 best players from any 15 countries, in theory. In practice, positional liberties may or may not be taken.

Lastly, keep in mind this is a current roster, not a historical one. That’s a game for another time. Here’s what the roster-building committee came up with.

Starting lineup

PG: Luka Doncic, Slovenia

SG: Steph Curry, USA

SF: Lauri Markkanen, Finland

PF: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greece

C: Nikola Jokic, Serbia

The obvious dilemma when finalizing our All-World roster was who would be the lone . At this snapshot in time, there’s a fair argument that Embiid and Jayson Tatum are the two best players on Team USA. But when one country has such a breadth of talent, you have to work backward. The U.S. is a mulligan. Choose the best player at whatever position is most needed. There is a massive surplus of international big men worthy of making this roster, so much so that the 7-foot Markkanen is our starting small forward. (That’s a fair designation for him, taking into account .)

There is no such surplus in the backcourt. So really, the choice between American superstars came down to Curry, Anthony Edwards and Devin Booker. I went with the most surefire 3-point threat who’s cemented as an all-time great yet still in his prime. Curry could play backup point guard as well, but he completes this lineup nicely with his ability to terrify opponents off-ball as much as he does with the rock in his hands. Good luck beating these five.

Second unit

PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Canada

SG: OG Anunoby, Great Britain*

SF: Pascal Siakam, Cameroon*

PF: Victor Wembanyama, France

C: Domantas Sabonis, Lithuania

Back in 2021, had been included on a preliminary Olympic roster for Nigeria, where he’s eligible to play because his family is from there. But days later, he was absent from the invited to try out at training camp, quickly ending his rumored but unofficial involvement with the Nigerian squad. (In an before the ESPN report about the preliminary roster, Anunoby was not mentioned as a potential training camp appearance.) All that is to say Anunoby is a nuanced case. He hasn’t played for any national team at this point in his career, and he seemingly hasn’t chosen one either. So the defensive stalwart is listed here as a British representative. If he does eventually play for Nigeria, though, his presence on this roster is still eligible.

Siakam has not suited up for his birthplace yet in an international competition, but someday. Maybe he’s technically more of a stretch four, but he’s an elite enough perimeter player at both ends to approve his All-World Team categorization, the committee determined. And anyway, the remaining power forward spots on this roster are distinctly reserved for centers who can do other stuff. Wembanyama at the four is easy to justify: He’s already playing in double-big lineups alongside Rudy Gobert for his national team this summer, and only one of those guys is ball-handling on the perimeter and draining pull-up 3s. Jury’s out on how this lineup can effectively revolve around Sabonis, but that’s a problem to figure out later. For now, it’s just about maximizing the talent on the roster.

Reserves

PG: Josh Giddey, Australia

SG: Buddy Hield, Bahamas

SF: Franz Wagner, Germany

PF: Karl-Anthony Towns, Dominican Republic

C: Kristaps Porzingis, Latvia

The Land Down Under is the Land of Solid Role Players. And Giddey is the role player who makes the most sense for the All-World Team in that he fills a positional need. Wagner was the best player on the team that won the FIBA World Cup last year, making him another worthy young inclusion. Still, when you have a point guard who can’t shoot and a wing who can’t shoot, you have to compensate somehow. The roster-building committee has done so by turning to the islands of the Caribbean for 3-point help. Hield was on a Bahamas team that almost qualified for the Olympics this month, and Towns for the first time in a decade. Like Wembanyama, he has a formal note from Rudy Gobert excusing him from playing the five.

That allows the committee to squeeze one more big man onto the roster. It was a difficult decision with half of Europe showing up to the tryout, but Porzingis was the best available as long as he’s healthy.

And there you have it. The extremely official, definitively canon, All-World Team. This is the last you’ll be hearing from the roster-building committee for a while, as the committee is taking a vacation. Until next time, here are a few of the players who narrowly missed the cut.

Honorable roster cuts

Alperen Sengun, Turkey; Rui Hachimura, Japan; Jonathan Kuminga, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Gabe Vincent, Nigeria; Deni Avdija, Israel; Jose Alvarado, Puerto Rico; Ivica Zubac, Croatia; Jusuf Nurkic, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Steven Adams, New Zealand; Clint Capela, Switzerland; Nikola Vucevic, Montenegro; Santi Aldama, Spain.

A college basketball superstar at BYU, Fredette is best remembered in the United States as the , then falling back to Earth with a disappointing NBA career.

Yet overseas in Greece and China, he’s a champion and MVP.

Now the longtime Littleton resident has the opportunity to add another title to his resume as a member of USA Basketball’s three-on-three men’s team, one that will resonate worldwide: Olympic gold medalist.

“Obviously the NBA career was very up-and-down, but that doesn’t just happen to just me,” Fredette said ahead of the Summer Games in Paris. “It’s about trying to find the right fit at the right time in the right situation, and that didn’t quite happen the way it could have for me. But as one door closes, another door opens, and I always tried to take full advantage of that by working hard and being prepared and believing in myself.

“I’ve been fortunate to be able to do that and bring it all the way to 3×3, where it’s been an incredible ride. I think I’ve been able to leave an imprint on the game of basketball, and my legacy’s been solidified.”

As the country’s leading scorer and national player of the year in 2011, Fredette transformed into a college basketball icon at BYU. He was selected 10th overall in the NBA draft but was never able to find his footing across five franchises and six seasons in the league. That led him to search for professional stardom overseas, where he won a Greek Basket League championship and was named the Chinese Basketball Association MVP as part of a prolific four-year run with the Shanghai Sharks.

Fredette then transitioned to 3×3 in 2022 and is now the most recognizable face of a U.S. team with a decidedly Centennial State flavor.

Fellow guard Canyon Barry grew up in Colorado Springs and attended Cheyenne Mountain High School, while forward Kareem Maddox worked as a producer for Colorado Public Radio and a host at KUNC. (Colorado also has a representative on the men’s five-on-five team in Parker native Derrick White.)

“Colorado isn’t really known as a basketball state, so it’s cool to represent that aspect of Colorado that flies under the radar,” Barry said. “And with these local ties, Paris is an unbelievable chance to show the world, and especially the U.S., what 3×3 is about because it still hasn’t caught on here like it has overseas.”

The U.S. team, rounded out by Nebraska native Dylan Travis, honed its chemistry together for almost two years heading into the Olympics.

The foursome played on the FIBA 3×3 World Tour together as Team Miami, earning an automatic qualification for Paris because of their ranking within the top three on that circuit. Last fall, they won gold at the Pan-American Games. Before that, the team took gold at the 2022 FIBA 3×3 Men’s AmeriCup in Fredette’s debut.

For Fredette, shifting from traditional hoops to 3×3 allowed him to spend more time at his Littleton home with his wife and three young kids while also chasing an Olympic dream. The 35-year-old’s been working out at the Elite Performance Center in Centennial, and his trainer Eric Garcia says Fredette “hasn’t lost a step” from the long-distance sharpshooter who captivated the nation while in college.

“He’s still the best shooter I’ve ever been around,” said Garcia, a former Grandview star. “In our workouts, say we take 25 shots, and he may miss two or three max. And when he does, he’s mad at himself.”

Fredette’s training at Elite has been tailored to 3×3, a more physical brand of basketball that often features fewer foul calls. Numerous former Colorado high school basketball stars trained in the gym with Fredette, including Dominique Collier of Denver East, Colbey Ross of Eaglecrest and Josh Perkins of Regis Jesuit.

“What I’ve really noticed watching 3×3 is (opponents) really want to run him off the 3-point line, so he’s been able to learn how to create even more space with his jumper and in getting to the rim,” Garcia said. “They’re trying to do everything they can to not let him shoot threes, so he’s put in a lot of work shooting in traffic, working off screens and reading what the defense gives him.”

Fredette describes his teammate Barry as “probably the best downhill, straight-line driver on the FIBA World Tour.”

It’s high praise for a player who didn’t even make the Cheyenne Mountain varsity until his junior year and then toiled in the G League before making the U.S. 3×3 team in a tryout in 2019. That year, Barry and Maddox helped USA Basketball win its first 3×3 gold at the FIBA 3×3 World Cup in Amsterdam.

For Barry, the son of NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry and former USA women’s basketball executive Lynn Barry, Paris presents a chance to make his own mark in his family’s storied hoops legacy. Like his dad, Canyon has a unique underhand free throw style, one he used to set a University of Florida record with 42 straight free throws made.

“It’s really hard to do something new basketball-wise in the Barry family that hasn’t been accomplished before,” he said. “Between my mom and dad and brothers, we’ve had academic All-Americans, NCAA championships, NBA championships, All-Star Game appearances, a dunk contest victory, Finals MVP, Hall of Fame players, a top-50 greatest player of all time. So to be able to add my own twist to that Barry family basketball legacy is definitely really meaningful.”

In Paris, the U.S. will be challenged in the tournament by Serbia (currently ranked No. 2 in the FIBA rankings behind the Americans) and Latvia (the defending gold medalist). But the rest of the field — China, Netherlands, France, Lithuania and Poland — is also capable of a run in a sport where fast-paced games to 21 points often result in upsets.

In what may be Fredette’s last basketball hurrah — “I could go either way” on retiring after the Games, he says — the U.S. believes it has the experience and talent to win the tournament.

“I know we’ve put in the work to win a gold medal,” Barry said. “As long as we’ll go in and give our best effort, we can live with that. That being said, obviously we’re going to try our hardest to win gold, and that’s the ultimate goal.”

Paris Olympics 3×3 Men’s Basketball Schedule

Tuesday, July 30

U.S. vs Serbia, 2:35 p.m. (Pool Play)

Wednesday, July 31

U.S. vs Poland, 2:35 p.m. (Pool Play)

Thursday, Aug. 1

U.S. vs Lithuania, 11:05 a.m. (Pool Play)

U.S. vs Latvia, 3:05 p.m. (Pool Play)

Friday, Aug. 2

U.S. vs France, 10:35 a.m. (Pool Play)

U.S. vs China, 2:35 p.m. (Pool Play)

Sunday, Aug. 4

U.S. vs Netherlands, 11:05 a.m. (Pool Play)

Play-In Games 1:30 p.m., 2:05 p.m.

Monday, Aug. 5

10 a.m./11 a.m. (Semifinals)

1:30 p.m. (Bronze Medal Game)

2:35 p.m. (Gold Medal Game) ]]> 6491743 2024-07-18T17:00:18+00:00 2024-07-18T17:03:25+00:00