With the Gold Medal and Olympics immortality on the line, Team USA and Team France met in the final game of the men's Olympic basketball tournament on Saturday afternoon, and delivered an all-timer for hoops fans who have been tuned in throughout what has been one of the most memorable and competitive tournaments in the history of the Summer Games. In the end, it was Team USA who came away with a 98-87 win over the host nation on the backs of the veteran trio — LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant — who have delivered time after time since this team came together in early July. But in defeat, it was San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama who solidified himself as one of the biggest winners of the summer.
Victor Wembanyama's otherworldly talents were on display all tournament long for the French National Team, but with the weight of a nation on his shoulders and an opponent featuring three of the fifteen greatest players in basketball history who were hellbent for Gold, Wemby somehow never shined brighter than he did in the Gold Medal Game. On 11-for-19 shooting, Wembanyama finished with a game high 26 points for France, and left everything — tears included — on the floor in what turned out to be a valiant, but ill-fated attempt at leading one of the biggest upsets in Olympic basketball history.
It hasn't been long that the 20-year-old Wembanyama has occupied the spotlight, but he's already shown on countless occasions that he's totally unafraid of wearing his emotions on his sleeve. This instance is no different, and I sincerely hope that all of the “tough guy” sports fans out there don't vilify Wemby because he was willing to let his emotions show in this moment of defeat. We applaud our favorite athletes and idolize them for being cutthroat competitors who would do whatever it took to win. But in that same breath, if you expect a guy to care that much in victory, you damn well better expect that he's going to care that much in defeat as well.
The Future is Bright for Victor Wembanyama
Victor Wembanyama crying as he walked off the floor in Paris is not by any means a show of weakness. If anything, it inspires even more confidence that his claim as a generational talent is legitimate. The next guy in line, the torch-bearer… that guy should be in tears after a game of this magnitude. This was the biggest game in French basketball history, and Victor Wembanyama treated it as such. The Silver Medal will be what Wemby walks away with, but he earned a lot more than that over the past two weeks.
As the 2024-25 NBA season is now just shy of two months away, the focus will remain on Victor Wembanyama, but shift to what he'll be capable of doing in his second season with the San Antonio Spurs. After everything we saw from Wembanyama during his rookie season, and over the course of two weeks when Wemby left everything on the floor as he competed for Gold in his home country, I wouldn't be one bit surprised to see the young Frenchman take a big step toward his rightful spot at the top of the NBA.
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