Top 5 USA Basketball Olympic moments: Is Steph Curry’s ‘Night Night’ No. 1?

Ever since NBA players were cleared to play in the Olympics for the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Team USA has flat-out dominated the competition, winning eight of the nine gold medals handed out since then. The standard was set by the 1992 “Dream Team,” a squad containing 11 future Hall of Famers that won every Olympic game it played by at least 30 points.

Part of the motivation for assembling the initial “Dream Team” was to evangelize basketball for a global audience, a major goal of former NBA commissioner David Stern. The success of that goal has made the U.S. men’s basketball team’s path to a gold medal every four years much more difficult, as borne out by the recent 2024 Paris Olympics.

Despite boasting three basketball icons in LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, the 2024 U.S. team faced major challenges in the semifinal against Serbia, led by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, and in the gold medal game against host nation France, led by reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama and featuring plenty of additional NBA talent.

But pressure makes diamonds, as the saying goes, and that drama led to some of the most memorable moments in the modern era of U.S. Olympic men’s basketball.

With that in mind, we’re ranking the top five U.S. men’s basketball moments in the Olympics since 1992. Keep in mind these are specific plays or games, not overall tournaments. Let’s dive in.

Honorable mention: Dream Team gets feisty (1992 vs. Angola and Croatia)

As touched on above, the “Dream Team” was so far above the rest of its Olympic foes that its games were more clinical than competitive. The squad headlined by Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird is remembered more for its overall brilliance than for singular moments. 

But that dominance allowed some key players to embark on “side quests,” as the kids say. Charles Barkley, who was at the peak of his career, had one of the most memorable lines of the tournament before the team’s opening game against Angola. 

“I don’t know anything about Angola, but Angola’s in trouble,” the future sports broadcasting legend said. 

Barkley was right, and made sure of it. As the U.S. took a 31-point lead over Angola, Barkley took it to his counterparts in the frontcourt with shoves and elbows, even earning a technical foul. After a 116-48 U.S. win, Barkley called Angola “not a good team” and was even criticized publicly by Jordan and Karl Malone for his on-court antics.

But Jordan and Chicago Bulls teammate Scottie Pippen would have their own moment of pettiness one day later against Croatia. Sharing the court with future Bull Toni Kukoc, whom Chicago general manager Jerry Krause reportedly prioritized financially over Pippen, the superstar tandem ferociously went right at the young Croatian. 

It worked, as the sharp-shooting Kukoc made just two of his 11 shots in Croatia’s first game against the U.S., with Jordan and Pippen taking turns hounding the eventual 13-year NBA veteran.

5. Peak Olympic Melo (2012 vs. Nigeria)

In addition to his decorated NBA career, Carmelo Anthony is USA Basketball royalty. When he finished his national team career after the 2016 Olympics, Anthony was the national team’s all-time leader in scoring, rebounding, games played and gold medals won (three). His scoring prowess when playing with other stars was so notable that he was nicknamed “Olympic Melo.”

And Olympic Melo never shone brighter than against Nigeria in the 2012 London Olympics. Anthony single-handedly demolished Nigeria to the tune of a USA Basketball record 37 points in less than 15 minutes of game action, shooting an absurd 13-for-16 from the field and 10-for-12 from 3-point range. His performance left several of his USA teammates and fellow NBA superstars such as Kobe Bryant, James Harden, LeBron James and Kevin Durant in awe on the bench. The U.S. won 156-73, the most points and most lopsided victory in team history

Anthony has since been passed by James and/or Durant in most team records he once held, including gold medals (Durant now has four). He still holds the single-game scoring record, however, though Steph Curry came close with a 36-point performance in the 2024 Paris semifinals against Serbia. Not that Anthony would have minded that record falling, as he sat courtside for several of the U.S. games in Paris and was one of the team’s most vocal cheerleaders throughout USA Basketball’s latest gold medal run.

4. Big 3 lead the comeback (2024 vs. Serbia)

Most basketball fans know the key to pulling off an upset against a more talented team usually involves some combination of offensive rebounds, 3-point shooting and winning the turnover battle. For three quarters last Thursday, Serbia did just that, heading into the fourth up 13 points, just 10 minutes away from handing USA basketball its most stunning upset in program history.

Then, the superstars took over. Joel Embiid went right at his MVP rival Nikola Jokic, helping contain the Nuggets superstar in the paint while going on a personal seven-point run to help narrow the gap. LeBron James hit two layups in transition, including one that tied the game — he would finish with a triple-double. Steph Curry’s ninth 3-pointer of the night gave the U.S. its first lead since the first quarter — he would finish with 36 points. And Durant sealed the comeback with a trademark pull-up dagger.

Durant later called the USA-Serbia game one of the best he had ever been part of. For a generation of basketball fans that had waited to see James, Curry and Durant on the same team, that fourth quarter was a moment they will not soon forget.

3. Kobe Bryant runs through Pau Gasol (2008 vs. Spain)

In the years since Kobe Bryant’s death in 2020, Pau Gasol has constantly referred to his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate as his “brother” to signify the bond they had. But Bryant actually used that language himself to describe his relationship with Gasol to Spanish media before the 2008 “Redeem Team,” desperately seeking a return to the gold medal after having to settle for bronze four years earlier, faced a Spain team featuring Gasol that many (rightly) believed would be the U.S.’s toughest obstacle in the Beijing Olympics.

Then, behind closed doors, Bryant told his teammates he was going to “run through Pau’s f—ing chest” when Gasol would try to screen him on the first play of the game, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade recounted in a 2022 Netflix documentary. Bryant did exactly that on Spain’s first out-of-bounds play, stunning both his USA teammates and Gasol.

“We were like, ‘Holy s—. … He did that to his [Lakers] teammate?’” James remembered. “Ain’t no way we’re losing this game.”

They didn’t. The U.S. pummeled Spain 119-82 then beat Spain again in the gold medal game a week later, gutting out a 118-107 victory behind 27 points from Wade to ascend back to the top of the Olympic podium.

Years later, Bryant’s hard foul on Gasol is still widely regarded as a moment that set the tone for USA Basketball’s return to Olympic glory.

2. Vince Carter dunks over Frederic Weis (2000 vs. France)

The USA men’s run in the 2000 Sydney Olympics has largely been forgotten to history. Sure, there were some all-time greats on that U.S. squad, but it was hardly the legendary roster of 1992, or even 2008 or 2024. The U.S. was undefeated but not necessarily dominant, surviving a scare in the semifinals against Lithuania en route to another gold medal.

But the U.S. did have Vince Carter, and Carter used the opportunity to lay down what many consider one of the best in-game dunks of all time.

In the U.S.’s final group-stage game against France, Carter stole an errant French pass, raced towards the basket and jumped over 7-foot-2 center Frederic Weis for a ferocious slam that left everyone in the arena — including teammate Kevin Garnett — in awe. The French media labeled Carter’s slam “The Dunk of Death.”

It’s worth noting, too, that Weis was not just a random European big man. He was considered a top NBA prospect and drafted No. 15 overall by the New York Knicks in the 1999 NBA Draft. Although his NBA hopes never worked out, Weis had a long, successful career in Europe and remains an active figure in French basketball media. However, Weis is still primarily known for the moment when, as he stated later, he “learned people can fly.”

1. Steph Curry says ‘Night, Night’ to Paris (2024 vs. France)

In 2022, as the Golden State Warriors flew back from Boston after winning Steph Curry’s fourth NBA title, Curry outlined his next goal to teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, who had won Olympic gold with Team USA in 2016.

“I gotta go play for [Warriors and Team USA] Coach [Steve] Kerr in ‘24,” Curry said. “I gotta get something y’all got, that I ain’t got. I ain’t good yet. I gotta go get an Olympic medal.”

That set up one of the biggest storylines for USA Basketball in these 2024 Paris Olympics. Yes, LeBron James was back as the face of the team. Yes, Kevin Durant was looking to cement his legacy as the best Olympic basketball player ever. But for Curry, one of the greatest and most decorated NBA players ever, this represented his one and only chance at an Olympic gold medal.

And Curry made the most of it.

Not only was he instrumental in keeping the U.S. in the semifinal against Serbia before the team’s late comeback, he showed up in the gold medal game when France narrowed the deficit to three in the fourth quarter in front of a raucous Paris crowd. Curry calmly stepped back and drilled a 3-pointer. 

Then he did so again. And again.

Then, with less than a minute remaining, Curry stepped back one final time — this time off a double team of NBA players Nicolas Batum and Evan Fournier — and drilled a trademark deep 3, hitting his “Night, Night” celebration as the USA fans in the crowd, including Green and Carmelo Anthony, erupted. 

Later, after receiving his long-awaited gold medal and returning to the team hotel, Curry emerged at the team’s after party in a sweatshirt that said “Nuit, Nuit” — French for “Night, Night” — on the front.

Curry’s display, like Carter’s, was a generational basketball talent showing off on the Olympic stage the very thing that they do better than just about anyone else in history. Curry gets the edge here, however, as his performance came when his team needed to seal a victory in a tightly-contested gold medal game.

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