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Reflecting on his transition from the NBA, where he spent 12 seasons between 2012 and 2024, Fournier repeated that he nearly walked away following the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. After the bottom end of his NBA journey and remaining options didn’t meet his expectations, he questioned the road ahead. “When I saw that my only NBA opportunity was a flop, I asked myself if I really wanted to start all over again at this stage of my career,” he admitted. However, the itch to play returned after just two weeks of rest, leading him to ‘one last adventure in Greece’.
Fournier explained that the idea of retirement crossed his mind after a challenging stretch in the NBA and that he took some time to reflect on what he wanted next in his career. “I seriously considered retiring after the Paris Olympics,” Fournier said. “I had given myself a little bit of time to think about it. I went to the mountains and I thought, ‘Okay, let’s give it a go. I’ll enjoy it.’ “I was coming off two difficult seasons with the Knicks and I deeply love basketball, so I thought, ‘Enjoy yourself and end your career on that note.’”
As a part of Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Anthony Edwards was able to take lessons from the older generation of stars, such as Steph Curry. “Playing with the USA team, it taught me about having a routine, especially when it comes to being on the court,” Edwards explained to reporters following the All-Star game Sunday. “Because, like, watching Steph, [Kevin Durant] and [LeBron James] every day do the same routine – it's normal for a person to get bored with the same thing; waking up, doing this, every single day. But I feel like that’s what made them great. That’s what they taught me for sure."
Steve Kerr’s pregame press conference on Monday took a slight turn when media members asked the Warriors coach about Snoop Dogg. Kerr recalled his personal experience visiting with Snoop Dogg which, most recently, was during the 2024 Paris Olympics when the rapper served as a correspondent for NBC's coverage of the games. “The last time I saw him was on our team bus in Paris when we went up to Lille to play one of the pool games in the Olympics and he rode on the bus with us," Kerr before Golden State's game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Intuit Dome. "And it was like I didn't even know what was happening, and I'm sitting there and you know, in the first row and looking at my phone or something, and he gets on and he's like, 'Hey, coach.' “I was like, ‘Hey, Snoop. What's going on here?’ ”
A’Ja Wilson spoke about eventual marriage and starting a family. “That is always a dream,” Wilson said. “This is my life partner.” Over the four years of the relationship that bloomed during the 2021 Paris Olympics, Bam Adebayo largely had advocated for privacy. But the more the two were seen in public together, the more they shared in each others’ successes, the less there was a need to shy. “Nah, I mean we were never shy,” Adebayo said as he leaned against a door frame by the Heat’s practice court at Kaseya Center. “It was just with privacy you can actually build your foundation, work on making it solid and working towards when it gets public. We weren’t actually being secretive about it. We just know how to shut up.”
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Grant Hill: I think you you know, the World Cup and and the Olympics are very different. Um, you know, I think the Paris Olympics in 24 certainly hopeful with the 28 Olympics in Los Angeles, players wanted to play. They wanted to be a part of that and we're real grateful and thankful for that. You know, it's a little bit of a of a tougher sell with the World Cup if I'm being honest. And so, it's an opportunity, I think, to really the idea of really truly building a roster. And, you know, I loved the guys that we had in in in 2023 in World Cup. And, uh, we came close. You know, we [clears throat] we we we competed, we played hard. Offensively, we were the most efficient offensive team since 2004 in in terms of USA basketball. We were also the the least uh efficient defensive team since 2004.
Batum and Atkinson’s relationship has extended beyond just the NBA. Both grew close during their time together out west, and they reconnected last summer at the 2024 Paris Olympics on the same sidelines with Équipe de France de basketball. “We ended up on the national team because we never stopped talking about it, and he ended up with us, and that was great,” Batum said. “French guys, they all play,” Atkinson said. “They play for their national team, and that's not every country. A lot of the other countries, guys sit out. The French guys play, and he was our captain with Team France.”
When forward Nikola Jovic was drafted by the Miami Heat in 2022, he had yet to meet Denver Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic. But Jovic and Jokic have developed a friendship during the past two years while playing together for the Serbian national team in the 2024 Paris Olympics and also in the EuroBasket tournament this past offseason. “I mean, I can say he’s my pretty good friend,” Jovic said before facing Jokic and the Nuggets on Wednesday night at Ball Arena to close a four-game trip. “I’m happy I got to meet him, I’m happy I had the chance to play with him.”
As long as LeBron James' future in Los Angeles remains uncertain, Golden State will undoubtedly be mentioned as a potential James suitor. I'm told that the Warriors have called the Lakers on multiple occasions over the past 18 months to see whether there is any trade pathway to pairing James with Stephen Curry, who roughly a year ago at this time was teaming with LeBron for the United States senior men's national team on its run to a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
When Stephen Curry joined Team USA for the 2024 Paris Olympics, he knew he needed to be the team’s leader. Speaking exclusively to ClutchPoints, Curry’s former Davidson coach Bob McKillop shared the story of one Team USA practice when he visited Curry — and what Curry believed their greatest challenge was to winning the gold medal. In the summer of 2024, Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and others were all still learning how to play together. Before the Olympics began, Bob McKillop went to visit his former player and good friend at a Team USA practice. McKillop immediately noticed one thing that separated Curry from his fellow All-Star teammates. “[Steph] was diligent, detailed, incredibly sharp about the way he practiced, vis-a-vis his teammates who were great talents, but didn’t have the same attention to detail that he has,” McKillop explained. “He then went and practiced by himself for 30 minutes, which he always does.”
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Some sources in Dončić’s inner circle believed he was on the path toward this kind of physical transformation whether or not Dallas general manager Nico Harrison had bet against him. Dončić and his management team began working with Maček and Barrio in 2023. One year later, he helped carry the Mavericks to the NBA Finals and immediately followed that by playing for his national team in Slovenia’s failed bid to make the Paris Olympics.
The 2024 Paris Olympics left Jović with mixed emotions. He contributed as much as he could, but circumstances weren’t on his side. “How could I not feel bad? It’s kind of like… like I…” he paused. “I can’t say I was a burden to the team, but I couldn’t help enough. I managed to play a bit, but then I got sick over there and couldn’t play at all. Sometimes I even forget that I made it into the lineup coming off a broken foot. When we gathered, I arrived wearing a boot. I took it off and practically played right away. The people in Miami were the first ones who didn’t like that, but I just couldn’t skip that tournament. Now I’m healthy, and that’s the most important thing to me. Everything else will fall into place. Because, if nothing else, at least I know I can physically handle the challenges.”
“When you retire, you’re not a part of a team anymore. You’re not in a locker room like that anymore. So it’d be good,” he says of his role on the NBA on Prime crew. Wade looks forward to engaging in conversations on air with other former players whom he’s faced on the court and those who have “been in the same battle” as competitors in the NBA. The three-time NBA champion is also eager to announce games courtside, as he did at the 2024 Paris Olympics for NBC.
Former French national team head coach Vincent Collet admitted he was pleased that NBA superstar Joel Embiid chose to represent Team USA instead of joining France for the 2024 Paris Olympics. "I was happy Embiid didn't come last year," Collet told BasketNews at the B8 Summit in Vilnius last week. "I think we don't need that," he added, referring to the naturalization of players on national teams.