LeBron James, Vanessa Bryant and other celebrities cheer US women’s basketball team to gold
Biles and Ledecky give us the best moments of the Olympic Games in Paris
The Paris Olympics are over and Mackenzie Salmon analyzes the best moments, including when Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky cemented their GOAT title.
When the final whistle sounded and the women’s basketball gold medal was just a foot from the three-point line, tears flowed on both sides of the court. The scoreboard read: USA 67, France 66.
There were tears of sadness on the French side because they squandered a ten-point lead in the second half and narrowly missed out on a monumental surprise in front of their home crowd.
There were tears of joy on the American side – the eighth gold medal in a row made the Americans the most dominant team in Olympic history of all sports.
As the two teams shook hands and exchanged greetings after the game, there were warm hugs for French Gabby Williams, the WNBA star with dual citizenship who landed an unbalanced shot as time expired but just managed to get her foot on the 3-point line.
After the U.S. players greeted the crowd, Sabrina Ionescu thanked several special fans courtside. She hugged Kobe Bryant’s widow Vanessa, who was there with her family.
Brittney Griner of the U.S. team gave her wife a kiss some 20 months after returning from a Russian prison. Her path to the gold medal was unlike anyone else’s, after spending 293 days in prison and not knowing if she would ever play basketball again.
A’ja Wilson shook hands with five-time gold medalist Sue Bird, who was seated with several members of the gold medal-winning U.S. basketball team: Derrick White, Bam Adebayo and tournament MVP LeBron James, who was in attendance with his family.
Former US soccer player Megan Rapinoe and Spanish basketball star Pau Gasol were also among the celebrities who sat courtside during the gold medal game.
“We just knew what we had to do,” Wilson said. “We believed in each other and that’s the best part.”
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