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Kevin Durant entered the Paris Olympics with a strong case as the greatest player in USA Basketball history.
It just got stronger. With a dunk in the third quarter of USA’s 122-87 win over Brazil in Tuesday’s Olympic quarterfinal round, Durant became Team USA’s all-time leading Olympics scorer.
Durant entered Tuesday’s game trailing the previous mark of 488 points held by U.S. great Lisa Leslie by five points. He got off to a slow start with two points in the first half as Joel Embiid and Devin Booker paced the U.S. scoring effort.
But he got an early bucket off the bench in the third, then followed it up with a dunk from the baseline on a pass from Anthony Davis to give USA an 86-59 lead.
The bucket put Durant at 489 career points in his fourth Olympic Games. Leslie set the previous mark in four Olympics that ended with four gold medals. Leslie’s mark had stood since the U.S. women secured gold in 2008 in Beijing.
Four games and 16 years later, the mark now belongs to Durant with two games likely remaining in his USA Basketball career. He finished Tuesday’s game with 11 points, sending his career Olympics scoring tally to 494.
Where Durant stands among other USA men’s greats
Carmelo Anthony is the second-leading U.S. men’s scorer with 336 points in Olympic play. LeBron James reached 328 points on Tuesday and is on pace to move past Anthony into second place. James is also poised to move into first place on the all-time Olympic steals list and second in assists these Games while making his own case for all-time Olympic greatness.
But there is no doubt that Durant is historically USA’s most lethal offensive weapon. And he doesn’t have the bronze medal on his résumé that James and Anthony carry from the disappointing 2004 Games in Athens.
Team USA will face Nikola Jokić and Serbia in Thursday’s semifinal round. Win or lose, USA will advance to play for a medal. A win will put USA in the gold-medal game against the winner of the other semifinal between Germany and host France. A loss would place USA in the bronze-medal game.
Anything other than gold, of course, would mark a massive disappointment for a USA men’s team seeking it’s fifth consecutive gold medal. Durant has starred on the last three gold-medal teams as he carved out a career as inarguably the greatest men’s U.S. basketball Olympian ever.
Durant took over as USA’s top weapon in his first Olympics in 2012 in London while averaging 19.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals while shooting 48.5% from the field and an 52.3% from 3. That was on a roster that also featured LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and James Harden.
He’s since accepted every USA Basketball invitation to play in the Olympics and responded as the program’s most consistent weapon in Olympic play while averaging 19.7 points per game for Team USA en route to two more gold medals in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
He entered the Paris games with a calf injury that limited him in pre-Games practice sessions and warmups. He’s since come off the bench as the best sixth man in the history of basketball. He averaged 16 points in just 17 points per game in group play while shooting 63% from the field, trailing only Anthony Edwards’ team-leading 16.7 points per game.
Now he’s two wins away from a fourth Olympic gold medal.
Source Agencies
