USA TODAY International Edition
Bird, Catchings, Taurasi savor golden ride
With 5: 44 left in the U. S. women’s gold medal game against Spain on Saturday, Tamika Catchings, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi checked out for the last time as a group in a USA Olympic uniform.
Catchings is 37 and won’t be back for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. At 35 and 34, respectively, Bird and Taurasi might not be back either.
It was perhaps the final Olympic game for all of them, and they will leave Rio the way they expected to: with their fourth gold medal after a 101- 72 victory against Spain.
Catchings, Taurasi and Bird joined Lisa Leslie and Teresa Edwards as the only U. S. basketball players to win that many gold medals.
“The players that you’re with, that’s what makes it so special,” Catchings said. “Winning the gold is awesome. But when we think about the sweat and tears and hard work, looking to the right, looking to left on the podium, seeing the flag go up, hearing the national anthem being played, it never gets old.”
Catchings, Bird and Taurasi will be forever linked to one of the greatest and most- dominant runs in Olympic history amid a streak of six consecutive golds for the USA.
“It’s hard to quantify with words,” U. S. coach Geno Auriemma said of the trio’s impact and importance. “There are some things that they do that you just can’t describe.
“They set an example that today that is missing a lot. There’s a lot ( of ) entitlement out there in sports today, and you’ve got three Hall of Famers that don’t think they’re entitled to anything and they feel they have to work hard every day and have to earn it.”
When the three arrived in Rio and as recently as Thursday, they tried to say it wasn’t about them.
“It’s been the elephant in the room that we’re ignoring and haven’t brought it up,” Taurasi said. “We want to be in the moment.”
Yes, it’s a team sport. Yes, it took a team to win. But it was about them, too. Catchings said earlier in the week she did things she usually doesn’t do at the Olympics: shopping, trips to the beach.
Taurasi said she treated it like her first Olympics. Soaked up every bus ride, dinner and practice.
“It’s been hard,” Taurasi said. “All I keep hearing is, ‘ This is your last Olympics.’ You have to put that aside and just enjoy every moment. You don’t want to get caught up and forget all those good times.”
They weren’t exactly kids in 2004. But they were just out of college, having won NCAA titles and playing in the WNBA.
“It seems a really long time ago, and it some ways it is,” Bird said. “We knew the three of us were on that team to learn, to see what it meant to represent the United States at an Olympic event and take the torch and run with it.
“We were lucky to have veteran players show us with their play and their words.”
They joined in on an Olympic team in 2004 filled with stars they grew up watching and emulating: Leslie, Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson.
“Ninety- six was the first time I watched the Olympics, and I said, ‘ I want to be like them when I grow up,’ ” Catchings said. “We probably never thought we would be where we are.”
After the game, they hugged, smiled and cried.
“It’s one of these bittersweet moments where you work so hard and the buzzer rings and it’s just over. It’s done,” Taurasi said. “Right now, we’re all just feeling that, because tomorrow we all go our separate ways and it’s over.
“But it’s been amazing what we’ve done. … Let me tell you, tonight I’m really going to enjoy it.”