Back-to-Back Champs Will Reunite in Quest for Gold

Winning three titles with the Bulls and a pair of championships with the Spurs, Steve Kerr ended his playing days with five rings. Draymond Green and Kevin Durant have combined for five rings as well, earning the jewelry with the Warriors.

And starting in July, the Warriors coach and forward will be reunited with the two-time NBA Finals MVP, but for them, the five rings in play won’t be diamond-studded – they’ll be the five Olympic rings.

Durant and Green will suit up for USA Men’s Basketball in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – men’s basketball will run from July 25 to Aug. 7 – under the guidance of a coaching staff led by Gregg Popovich with Kerr, Villanova’s Jay Wright and former Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce acting as assistants.

Debuting for the red, white and blue in the 2012 London Summer Games, Durant is the fourth player in US men’s history to participate in three or more Olympic games, and took home the gold medal with his soon-to-be teammates Klay Thompson and Green in 2016 in Rio de Jianero.

After announcing his free agent decision to join the Warriors on July 4, 2016, Durant had his first experience with Thompson and Green as the overwhelming favorites on the basketball court in Brazil. The US swept its way through eight games to secure its third-straight Olympic gold – Durant had a game-high 30 points in a victory over 2020-21 NBA MVP Nikola Jokic’s Serbia in the gold medal match – tipping off a basketball dominance culminating in back-to-back NBA titles for the Warriors from 2016-2018.

Notably absent from the 2016 Olympics was the reigning back-to-back NBA MVP Stephen Curry, who certainly would have made the team but declined after an MCL sprain and consecutive seasons of play into late June made participating in the XXXI Olympiad an unwise move.

Curry declined to play in Tokyo “2020ne” to again allow his body to rest, and while Thompson also has the talent to represent his country in Japan, the guard has not seen the court since June 13, 2019, and has his sights set on the 2021-22 NBA season after suffering ACL and Achilles tears.

From Golden State’s standpoint, it might be hesitant to see the 31-year-old Green play high-intensity basketball and risk injury in Tokyo, especially after the six-time All-Defensive Team member struggled with intermittent injuries the past two seasons. However, if history is any indication, international play could buoy his performance the following season, as a younger Green came out of the 2016 Olympics with a 2016-17 campaign that netted him his first and only Defensive Player of the Year Award.

The reunion of Kerr, Green and Durant comes seemingly without much friction, as Green and Durant showed no animosity towards each other on Durant’s “The ETCs” podcast. The episode discussed the 2018 blowup against the Clippers between the teammates, but the pair seemed to get along despite Durant’s leaving the Warriors for the Brooklyn Nets the following offseason.

The delayed Tokyo Olympics will also be Popovich’s first at the helm of the three-time defending gold medalist Americans, taking over for Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, and Kerr’s inclusion on the staff is also his first taste of Olympic hoops.

Joining Durant and Green will be Bam Adebayo, Bradley Beal, Jerami Grant, Zach LaVine, Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum and Kevin Love, all of whom are first-time Olympians – with the exception of Love. Additionally, just as Kyrie Irving, Harrison Barnes, Green and Thompson played for the national team after the 2016 NBA Finals, Phoenix’s Devin Booker and Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday will play for USA Basketball after the Bucks and Suns duke it out in the 2021 NBA Finals.

It will be interesting to see Lillard, Booker and Tatum take the floor as part of USA Basketball’s newest generation (yes, Lillard is 30 while Booker and Tatum have a combined age of 47 years), but even more nostalgic to see Green and Durant play together once more with Kerr on the sideline. After all, if there is anything USA Basketball and Kerr, Green and Durant have in common, it’s the ability to win, and win often.