Team USA decided to quit messing around and win the dang gold medal on Saturday night, easily dispatching of Serbia in the gold medal game, a 96-66 walk in the park.Kevin Durant led the men’s basketball team to their third-straight gold medal, scoring 24 of his 30 points in the first half and giving Mike Krzyzewski’s team a substantial halftime lead.They would build on it in the second half, giving Coach K now 24-0 in the Olympics an opportunity to (mostly) empty his bench and get the Americans on the court. Durant starred on the court, but Carmelo Anthony starred off it. Anthony won his third gold medal, the most by any American basketball player in history, and gave an emotional interview after the game while letting everyone know this would be his last Olympics.”I know this is the end,” Anthony said. “This is it for me.”‘Melo also talked about what it means to win the gold for America with “everything that’s going on right now in our country” and remaining “united.””Despite everything that’s going on right now in our country, we gotta be united,” Anthony said. “I’m glad I did what I did, I stepped up to the challenge, but this is what it’s about. Representing our country on the biggest stage that you can be on. America will be great to do, I believe that. We got a lot of work to do, but it’s one step at a time, man. I’m glad we represented in the fashion that we did.”It was the 15th gold medal victory for the United States men’s basketball team and the third most all-time by a coach for Krzyzewski, who will be replaced by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich in the 2020 games.
