PARIS — Stephen Curry just wanted to feel like an Olympian.
He was surrounded by hundreds of elite athletes as he rode down the Seine River on a Team USA boat during the opening ceremonies on July 26. But the Golden State Warriors star's celebrity status kept getting in the way of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“At first, I didn't feel like I was just one of them because everyone was coming up to me and saying, 'Can I take a picture with you?'” said Curry, 36, who will be competing in his first Olympic Games. “That's the vibe I got. I had to really stop and say, 'No, I want to know who you are and what you do, and I want to be on an equal footing, because you're here for a reason.'”
A few hours later, Curry took more than 200 photos with other players on his cell phone while learning about the enduring Olympic tradition of pin trading — a highlight of Curry's off-court moments.
“I got to be a fan,” he said. “It was a special experience.”
As some of the most famous athletes on the planet – and their stardom is the main reason they won't be in the Olympic Village during the Games – the players on the USA Men's Olympic Basketball Team have had a rare opportunity to mingle and admire their peers over the past few weeks.
And with the Olympics drawing to a close, with the U.S. team facing Serbia in the semifinals on Thursday and the gold medal game two days later, the nostalgia is already beginning to take hold.
When asked to choose his favorite memory from these Olympics, Kevin Durant had no hesitation.
“I met Simone,” he said, smiling.
Like LeBron, KD and Steph, legendary American gymnast Simone Biles is one of the few athletes with an astronomically high Q rating who doesn't need a last name. So on August 1, the day after the men's basketball team beat South Sudan in a pool game and two days before the U.S. stunned Puerto Rico, a group that included Durant, Curry, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Tyrese Haliburton went to watch Biles play.
She won the individual all-around title that night, earning her sixth gold medal, while fellow American Suni Lee took the bronze medal.
“I've never seen gymnastics up close like that,” said Durant, the Phoenix Suns star who has won three gold medals and is seeking to become the first gymnast in program history to win a fourth. “Obviously I've watched it on TV, but being there is different. And to see how good she is and the other gymnasts who have put in so much time on their craft, it's just amazing to see how good they've become.”
But Durant's observations went far beyond this inspiring result.
Before that night, he hadn't realized that gymnastics was a young person's sport. He'd heard all about how Biles, 27, was considered “old” in the sport and how many gymnasts, like 16-year-old American Hesley Rivera, become elite athletes before they even qualify to vote.
Durant heard the widespread criticism Biles received in 2021 when, despite being the gold medal favorite in most events at the Tokyo Olympics, she withdrew, citing a condition known as “twisties.” Biles, who spoke of the mental issues she was facing at the time, lost her orientation mid-air and stopped as a result. For Durant, that decision, and the incredible comeback since, are as much a part of her legend as everything that came before it.
But what Durant admires most about Biles is that no matter what criticism she faces, she's not afraid to tell the world how she feels — whether in front of the camera, on social media or wherever.
Durant, who has faced intense scrutiny himself but is known for publicly interacting with fans and media members, now sees Biles as an inspiration in that regard and in many other ways.
“When people see great potential at a young age, you get criticized, but she's experienced that at the highest level,” Durant said. “She goes out there every day and continues to showcase how great she is, and at the same time, she lets people know that they're crazy to criticize her. It's impressive that she can do both.”
Durant paused.
“So she just keeps on tweeting me and inspiring me to keep doing what I'm doing on the court,” he said with a laugh.
Of all the American basketball players who make memories, Booker is probably best placed to actually document them. When he was looking for creative ways to document his first All-Star experience in Toronto in 2016, Booker stuck to the old-fashioned route and decided to use a video camera rather than a cell phone.
“I had some really good friends who introduced me to cameras when I was a rookie, and they were like, 'Hey, bring a Handycam, because it feels more authentic than an iPhone,'” said Booker, 27, who will be competing in his second Olympic Games after winning gold in Tokyo. “It feels old-fashioned. It makes you pay more attention, listen a little bit more. The iPhone camera is awesome.”
Fast forward to Paris, and two friends who help Booker produce online content joined him, and he shared high-quality, tightly edited videos that now appear regularly on his Instagram feed.
“You go through all the video and slice it up,” Booker says. “The cam makes it easy: you take the coolest moments and then put it all together.”
Like Durant, Booker said the chance to see Biles up close is what he's personally most excited about, but there's plenty else he's looking forward to.
On Sunday afternoon, Booker watched his “good friend” American fencer Miles Chamley-Watson win the bronze medal in the team event against France, then traveled to the Stade de France to witness Noah Lyles' stunning photo-finish victory in the 100-meter final.
If he had to choose his favorite experience other than Biles (which Durant ended up choosing), Booker said it was his trip to Concorde on July 29 that fulfilled his passion for skateboarding like never before.
“Looking at (American skateboarders) Nyjah (Houston), Jaguar (Eaton) and Yuto (Horimai) from Japan, they're guys I look up to. They were all in the top three,” Booker said. “I tried to get on a skateboard but I got bored of it pretty quickly. But I identify with the skate culture and the way they do their thing, so I'm OK with that.”
“For me, this experience was unique – I got to participate in all the other events and see talented people from all over the world at the same time. This is something I will pass on to my generation – I will send the footage I shot on my camcorder to my children's children's children and hope they can feel it.”
As Curry reflected on the interactions that brought him joy, he began to list the mementos of those moments — none of which come close to the gold medal they're after, of course, but still special.
He had some ping pong balls autographed by the U.S. women's table tennis team, who came to watch the men's basketball team practice — and, in case you were wondering, these were the same group of women who told Minnesota Timberwolves star and self-proclaimed table tennis whiz Anthony Edwards that he couldn't score a single point against them during the boat tour at the Opening Ceremony.
Anthony Edwards thinks he can compete with the US table tennis team 😂 pic.twitter.com/30GdJOmR3G
— Sideline Sources (@sidelinesources) July 27, 2024
And then there are the pins. There are a lot of really cool pins.
“My favorite is the (US) skateboarding badge,” Curry said. “I got the Jamaican team badge, which made me happy because my wife has a lot of relatives who are from Jamaica. I also like pistol shooting.”
He also has plans for photography.
“I'm such a sentimental person,” he says, “so when I get the prints, I might actually archive this so that in six months, or six years, I can pull out the wine bottle and just look at it and reminisce a little bit. I want to preserve all those memories and be able to relive them.”
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(Top photo: Stephen Curry cheering on Simone Biles. Jan Katow/Getty Images)
