Why Kerr knows every way Steph ‘fits perfectly’ into Team USA

Why Kerr knows every way Steph ‘fits perfectly’ into Team USA originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Steve Kerr still remembers sitting in his new Oakland office a few months after being named the Warriors’ head coach in 2014, watching his backcourt of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson take home gold for Team USA at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.

Curry played a team-high 23 minutes for the USA, and he and Thompson combined to score 22 points in the gold medal game. Thompson again won gold for Team USA in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, but Curry hasn’t sported the red, white and blue for a decade.

That will change this summer when Curry suits up for Team USA, playing for Kerr in Paris at the 2024 Olympics.

“Who could have predicted that it would be another 10 years before he played for Team USA,” Kerr said Thursday morning over Zoom.

A 24-year-old Curry wasn’t selected for Team USA in 2012 and wasn’t healthy enough to go through the rigors the Olympics demand in 2016 after playing a combined 97 games between the regular season and playoffs. He simply opted out of playing the 2020 games which were pushed back a year to the summer of 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking his age into account, that left one last opportunity.

Curry has zeroed in on this summer for quite some time now. The Warriors superstar turned 36 years old in March and knows this likely will be his last chance at representing his country at the Olympics.

When Curry last played for Team USA in 2014, his legendary shot didn’t always fall through the hoop like usual. Even in the gold medal game, he scored only 10 points on 2-of-7 shooting – all being 3-pointers. He shot 40.8 percent overall, which was the second-worst on Team USA despite averaging the fifth-most minutes (20.6) per game. Curry also is a 42.6 percent 3-point shooter for his career in the NBA.

That same success, however, did follow him to Spain 10 years ago, shooting 43.8 percent behind a shorter 3-point line.

“I know how excited he is to play in his first Olympics,” Kerr said. “Let’s face it, he’s a great fit in any league in the world. The best…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-kerr-knows-every-way-154234034.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-06-28 15:42:34

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