U.S. women’s basketball team closes with another gold medal.
Bird, Taurasi, Griner help basketball team rewrite Olympic history
Two of the biggest names in women’s basketball walked off the Olympic stage together Saturday night for the final time in a fitting farewell to almost two decades of unsurpassed excellence.
Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi have been synonymous with U.S. basketball supremacy as they exited the court arm-in-arm, forever linked to the team’s historic success.
The United States pounded the ball in the post behind Britteny Griner’s 30 points to win its record-tying seventh consecutive gold medal with a 90-75 victory over Japan as the Tokyo Games drew to a close.
The seven titles tied the men’s program for the most in Olympic history for any team sport. The men set the record from 193668 in the days before the Dream Teams.
“We were just asked, ‘What did you think in 2004 when you won
your first one?’ I thought that was our last one,” Taurasi told reporters.
But the former Connecticut teammates were just getting started at the Athens Games in 2004. Tokyo marked their fifth gold medal to add to their legacies as two of the greatest guards to play women’s basketball.
Bird, 40, said she and Taurasi learned from their older peers in 2004 what it meant to represent the United States in the Olympics.
“For us, hopefully, we’ve left some sort of legacy where they now can carry that torch,” she.
Bird, 40, plans to retire from the U.S. national team as does coach Dawn Staley. Taurasi, 39, might not be ready for her last jump shot.
After a TV interview on the court, Taurasi turned to the camera before walking away and said, “See you in Paris.”
The 2024 Paris Games are only three years away and Taurasi still is a potent scorer for Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA.
But the future can wait as the women wanted to savor their night.
Bird and Diana Taurasi now have the most gold medals of any basketball player.
They sit one championship behind kayaker Birgit FisherSchmidt of East Germany and fencer Aladar Gerevich of Hungary for the most gold medals alltime in separate Olympics.
“The start of this winning occurred before them,” said Staley, who won three gold medals as a player. “They finished it off. They took the torch and took it to another level.”
The victory Saturday extended the Americans’ Olympic win streak to 55 games dating to their bronze-medal win in Barcelona in 1992.
The gold medal was part of a big weekend for U.S. women’s sports. The American water polo team defeated Spain for its third
consecutive gold medal and the women’s indoor volleyball team won its first Olympic title in history by steamrolling rival Brazil 3-0. Allyson Felix won her 11th medal in track and field as the U.S. 4X400 relay team finished first.
The WNBA stars had defeated Japan 86-69 in the preliminary round on July 30. The group play matchup gave the Americans an idea of what to expect from a program that had never won an Olympic medal in women’s basketball.
Go big against a team whose tallest player is 6-feet-1.
Bird got the Americans off to a fast start by scoring six points as the U.S. took a 10-2 lead it never lost.
Staley, though, didn’t need to rely on her two experienced guards. The team looked for 6-8 Griner and fellow star A’ja Wilson in the post to keep Japan offbalance.
Griner, Taursi’s WNBA teammate in Phoenix, made 14 of 18 shots to lead all scorers with 30 points. The 6-4 Wilson added 19 points and 6-4 Breanna Stewart had 14 and 14 rebounds. The trio combined for 11 of the 12 U.S. blocks.
Taurasi and Bird had more
than cameo appearances. Taurasi had seven points, six rebounds and eight assists. Bird added seven points.
Despite the WNBA all-star talent Japan never let the Americans get overly confident. The Japanese countered as best as they could with precision shooting from deep.
Maki Miyoshi made 6 of 9 shots from 3-point range to lead Japan with 17 points. The 5-4 guard Nako Motohashi made four of five 3-pointers to add 16 points.
But Japan made only 28 of 77 shots without much of a scoring threat in the post.
The victory followed the U.S. men’s gold-medal triumph over France the previous night.
Taurasi reflected on the team’s growth this summer to play its best at the end.
“We really didn’t know who we were at the beginning,” she said. “But on the last day when we needed to be a team and we needed to know who we really are everyone locked in.”
Bird could not have asked for a better ending.
“There’s really not much else to say,” she said.
At least until the next chapter is written.