On Sunday, August 24, 2008, as the Olympic basketball tournament closes, Team USA and Spain will provide an unforgettable spectacle for 11,083 lucky spectators in a Beijing arena and millions of television viewers around the world.
How? By offering 40 minutes of very high-level basketball. An idea of perfection itself since there are few similar encounters in the history of sport.
The episode – USA-Spain 2008, the greatest match in history?
“For me, it's the best basketball game of all time”assured us George Eddy, commentator of the final for Canal+. “NBA, international basketball and college basketball combined. I had the chance to commentate it, in the front row, with David Cozette. At halftime, I told my colleague that we were watching the greatest game in the history of this sport. The level of skill and the team level were immense. All the parameters for a great game were there. It was a perfect alignment of the planets.”
Indeed, the first half was fantastic. Taking advantage of José Calderon's injury, who left his place at the point to Ricky Rubio, 17, the Americans wanted to control the tempo and impose their defense. After only ten minutes, the score was already impressive: 38-31!
If Team USA takes a lead of up to twelve points in the second quarter, at halftime, the scoreboard could be that of the end of a group game: 69-61.
“In the first half, both teams scored more than 60 points, with a success rate of over 60%!”recalls George Eddy. “In a 40-minute match, that's huge! You never see that, even less between the two best teams in the world and in an Olympic final. The stakes didn't kill the game.”
A boxing match
We then think that the break will break the fabulous rhythm and that with money-time approaching, the address will fall and the defenses will take over. Certainly, the percentages fall – Spain will finish at 50%, Team USA at 60% – but the level remains at the top.
“I had in mind the boxing match between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns, broadcast by Canal+, in the 1980s. The fight of the century. From the first seconds, both were looking for the KO. The series of blows was incredible and it remains a reference in this environment. This match between Team USA and Spain is in this vein.”
Rudy Fernandez gives us the dunk of the tournament, on Dwight Howard's head, but it is Kobe Bryant who turns the game around. Three minutes and thirteen seconds remain, Mike Krzyzewski's men lead 104-99.
Dwyane Wade attacks the Spanish zone defense and passes to Kobe Bryant. The Lakers guard fakes Rudy Fernandez and fires his 3-pointer. It goes in, with the foul! The Iberian guard takes his fifth foul, and Kobe Bryant, index finger on his mouth, immortalizes the image of the tournament.
Team USA finally won 117-108 after a legendary match where the loser was magnificent and deserves eternal respect.
“This Spanish team is probably, together with one of the great Yugoslav teams at the time of Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic in the early 1990s, one of the strongest of all time”says George Eddy. “So Team USA's victory is even more beautiful, this match even more grandiose. It was therefore stronger than the “Dream Team” of 1992 since an upset was possible.”
The victory of a model and basketball
After the failures of 2002, 2004 and 2006, Team USA, which had begun a reconstruction of its model by composing a more coherent and balanced formation, finally returned to the roof of the world. Of Olympus.
“Everyone talks about NBA players being selfish, arrogant and individualistic.”, Kobe Bryant explained. “What you saw today was a team that came together, overcoming adversity and ultimately coming away with a huge victory.”
In spirit, there is truly a very big winner, besides the Americans of course, at the end of these sublime minutes: basketball.
“This will raise the image of this sport in the world”USA Basketball boss Jerry Colangelo said. “It was one of the greatest matches in Olympic history. The quality and calibre of the players was extraordinary. We set the bar very high and it will be even better next time.”
Indeed, the 2012 final in London, again between Team USA and Spain, was another monument. But it does not have the flavor, the perfection of the first.
