San Antonio Spurs: Keldon Johnson, Gregg Popovich win gold
By Roberto Araiza
Keldon Johnson - JPN: United States v France Men's Basketball - Olympics: Day 2 / Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
It's official, San Antonio Spurs fans: Keldon Johnson and head coach Gregg Popovich are Olympic gold medalists. This marks the fourth gold medal in a row for the U.S. Men's National Team, also winning in 2008, 2012, and 2016.
In a hard-fought game against a French National Team headlined by Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum, and others, Team USA perhaps gave their most impressive defensive performance in the game that mattered most.
They were led by a heroic performance by team captain Kevin Durant, who recorded 29 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. His partner in crime in their gold medal game was Jayson Tatum, who posted 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 steal. Jrue Holiday played fantastic defense, tallying 4 steals and 1 block, and Damian Lillard had a late fourth-quarter surge.
This is the first Olympic gold medal for both Coach Popovich and Johnson. Johnson is also now the youngest active Spurs player in team history to win a gold medal beating out both David Robinson and Tim Duncan. Johnson was not given any playing time in the gold medal match against France, but he deserves just as much credit for stepping up to join the team in the absence of Bradley Beal.
While it's unclear as to whether or not Coach Popovich will continue to coach Team USA beyond the 2020 Olympics, he and the rest of the coaching staff deserve just as much credit in their win and the team would be lucky to have them return. For Johnson, being that he is only 21 years old, we can only hope that this will be the first of many more international wins for him.
Air Alamo congratulates Popovich, Johnson, and the rest of the Team USA roster for yet another fantastic showing at the Olympics.