In the final scene of Spike Lee’s beloved He Got Game, which occupies the pantheon of sports films, an incarcerated Denzel Washington throws a basketball over the prison yard wall. The ball magically transcends space and time, landing on the Big State court and in the hands of his son, played by Ray Allen. The mysticism of the ending remains polarizing, but it beautifully expressed a passing of the torch, a transfer of energy, in a way few filmmakers have done before or since. Twenty-five years later, in an electric T-Mobile Center on Wednesday night, I remembered that moment when Team USA’s LeBron James grabbed a defensive rebound, spotted Anthony Edwards running back in transition and drove in a full-court, quarterback-style pass to him, which Edwards converted with a dunk on the other end: basketball’s present, and the past soon, throwing the ball to his clear future. Two overlapping timelines. It was poetry.
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“It was crazy,” Edwards told the Guardian when asked about the transcendent moment. “It’s crazy, man, playing on the court with LeBron and Steph. It’s a dream come true. I remember watching them face off in the finals. So, being in the room with them, on the bus with them, all of that. I’m just taking it all in.”
Although he’s clearly enjoying the opportunity to be surrounded by his childhood heroes, Edwards displayed his patented braggadocio earlier in the week, saying He still felt like “the number one option”, even on a team made up of older, more experienced future Hall of Famers. And he’s not necessarily wrong, at least not if the early results are any indication. Although Edwards came off the bench in the United States’ first public showing before the Paris Olympics, an 86-72 victory over Canada on display on Wednesday, he proved to be an invaluable contributor and perhaps deserving of a starting spot, despite being the youngest player on the squad.
Coach Steve Kerr’s starting five, made up (for now) of James, Curry, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Joel Embiid (who committed a foul after just 12 minutes), got off to a slow start. A team from Canada with a record 10 NBA players on its roster looked like the team with all its strength and vigor. That was, at least, until the arrival of the second American unit. That unit was highlighted by Edwards (who will turn 23 at the Olympics), Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum. The decidedly younger group injected much-needed defensive intensity into the contest for the United States, which carried over into the starting unit’s next matches and paved the way for a decisive U.S. victory.
The second half, after the infusion of energy from Edwards and company, provided some euphoric basketball watching. Of course, there was the inherent novelty of seeing so many all-time greats on the same floor – the team has been called The Avengers, and for good reason – and a raucous crowd of 20,757 in the stands, a record for any game in T -Mobile Arena. There was former US President Barack Obama casually watching the show from a courtside seat, along with Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and a host of other retired NBA legends with Olympic pedigree as special USA Basketball guests. But beyond all that, there was an unmistakable electricity that ran throughout the arena, due to one specific factor: these guys, young and old, experienced and fresh, were clearly having a great time out there.
One moment to demonstrate this especially comes to mind: during a feverish counterattack in the third quarter, as Team USA was beginning to pull away with a lead they would maintain until the final buzzer, James grabbed another rebound, which he threw to Curry for transition. Curry flew across the court, tongue wagging, 39-year-old James in pursuit, before throwing back to LeBron for a thunderous dunk.
I gasped with joy along with my media colleagues in the press line as the crowd lit up with joy. A two-man game between Steph and LeBron: will the wonders never cease? And the longtime friendly rivals, smiling at each other, were clearly savoring the moment as much as anyone.
“It’s been amazing that at this point in our careers we can still showcase our talent, do what we love to do and give back a little to the fans,” James told the Guardian when asked how it felt to join forces with an old enemy he had been with. he had so many legendary battles over the years. “So it was an absolute pleasure because he’s one of the greatest to ever play this game. I’m looking forward to the rest of the summer.”
Team USA has a few more warm-up games ahead of them before they begin their quest for a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal in Paris on July 27. They then travel to Abu Dhabi for exhibitions against Australia and Serbia, where they will join (despite some very public protests by Jaylen Brown) by Kawhi Leonard Replacement Derrick White and, hopefully, Kevin Durant, currently sidelined. Then two games against South Sudan and Germany next week at the O2 Arena in London. But with just four days of training camp and one glorious game so far, the U.S. men’s national team likes its chances. “We have a mix of guys in terms of skills, age, height. We have a very diverse group and that helps us,” Davis, who scored a double in the team’s first game, told the Guardian after the game. “Obviously, LeBron, Steph, KD, those are the older guys. In the middle, there’s me, Jrue, Joel. Then you got guys like Tyrese, Bam [Adebayo], Ant, who are younger. We have a good combination.”
Almost always, nostalgia exists exclusively in retrospect. It’s incredibly rare to be firmly rooted in the present, yet still hyperaware of how singular the moment you occupy is. To make sure you are living in a time that future generations will reverently talk about: “I was around for what.” But as I watched the best of basketball’s future, past, present and future come together for a moment this week in a Marvel-style destruction of the constraints of the multiverse, it occurred to me that this really was one of those moments. Gold medal or not, this is a team we will tell our kids about.
