PARIS — Three days after Stephen Curry put France’s hopes of an Olympic basketball gold medal to sleep, Kendal and his friends played a spirited pickup game in Luxembourg Gardens.
Kendal, 25, lives in Paris and stands slightly taller than 6 feet. He wanted to attend the USA-France game Aug. 10 at Bercy Arena, but tickets were too expensive. So, he watched it on television with friends.
“I’ve played basketball since I was 10, and Steph Curry is my favorite player,” Kendal said in English with a thick, lyrical French flavor. “But he disgusts me.”
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He smiled while delivering the punch line.
This story was an accidental discovery. I stayed in Paris after covering the Olympics for three days of sightseeing. On Day 2, after visiting Roland Garros Stadium to soak up some tennis history, I stopped by Luxembourg Gardens, a sprawling and picturesque urban park.
That’s where I stumbled upon the pickup game, happening on a concrete court with a metal backboard. The game included young players and middle-aged players, good players and not-so-good players. One guy wore an Air Jordan shirt. Another wore an “I ❤️ Paris” shirt.
One other thing stood out: Most players in the game eagerly, fearlessly, repeatedly launched outside shots, much like the Golden State Warriors star. They would have been 3-pointers if there were an arc on the playground, but the absence of a line didn’t dissuade them.
Neither did the frequency of misses.
“There’s no distance too long,” Kendal said. “On the playground, we see a lot of little Steph Currys who have no shot.”
That group doesn’t include Salif, a 29-year-old who probably was the best player in the pickup game. He’s not especially tall (also 6+ feet), but he’s strong and tenacious.
Salif gathered nearly every rebound and scored on a variety of midrange shots and layups. He had more Charles Barkley in his game than Steph Curry.
Asked how much Curry influences the playground games in Paris, Salif said, “A lot. I hate him, to be honest.”
He smiled as he said it, too.
At the same time, Salif lamented the 3-point revolution that Curry launched many years ago and highlighted with his Olympic heroics against Serbia and France. Just as high-level basketball now revolves around long-distance shooting, so does playground ball.
And not only in the United States.
“It’s too much,” Salif said. “As soon as (Curry) starts playing and shows all the kids how to play, everything changed. They all want to play outside the line.”
Salif shook his head, smiled again and added, “Nah, it’s too much. I hate this guy.”
The conversation soon veered beyond Curry and into wider basketball matters. Namely, the state of the international game: How did these avid basketball fans feel about their country winning the silver medal in each of the past two Olympics?
France beat the U.S. in group play at the Tokyo Games in 2021, then lost to the Americans by five points for the gold medal. This time, France trailed the U.S. by only three with three minutes left before Curry’s splashy show.
“I think European basketball has grown up a lot,” Kendal said. “The level (disparity) between Europe and the United States is a lot closer.”
Hichem, another player in the pickup game, suggested France could win gold at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Curry (who will be 40) and LeBron James (who will be 43) probably won’t play in those Summer Games, and Kevin Durant might not either (who will be 39).
By that time, Victor Wembanyama will also be 24 then (not 20), with five years in the NBA (not one). France has a pipeline of promising young players, starting with Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr, the top two picks in this year’s NBA draft.
And the best player on this year’s France team in the Olympics was Guerschon Yabusele, who plays in Europe and not the NBA. The argument for an end to U.S. dominance was building steam until Salif spoke up.
“France? No, guys,” he said, laughing as he tamped down the patriotic optimism. “It will be hard to win because of the new generation of U.S. players. They have people with skills.”
Hichem noted, “We have as much chance as Serbia or other countries.”
Salif replied, “Serbia is real good, and so is Canada. … But you’re right. The U.S. won’t be the same, for sure.”
All three young Frenchmen agreed Wembanyama gained valuable experience in this year’s Olympics. He acquitted himself well in Lille and Paris, but they figure he’ll be better prepared to handle the pressure and defensive attention in Los Angeles.
They’re not as high on Rudy Gobert, the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Asked about Draymond Green’s tiff with Gobert last season, when Green put him in a headlock during a Warriors-Timberwolves game, Hichem barely contained his contempt for Gobert (and didn’t even mention the tussle with Green).
“Hey, don’t speak about Rudy Gobert please,” he said. “On the defensive end, he’s something. But not on the offensive end. In the USA, you have to score. And he can’t.”
Gobert might not be a playground favorite, but it’s clear who boosted basketball’s popularity in France. Our impromptu panel of three agreed: First came Kobe Bryant, then James and then Curry.
Wembanyama counts as a source of pride in his own unique way. Kendal said he played against Wembanyama in a club league when they were younger, and the future star already was freakishly tall and skilled — and playing on the perimeter, unlike most “big guys” of the past.
That’s just the modern dynamic, from the NBA and the Olympics to the Paris playgrounds. Before Kendal returned to the pickup game, he shared his thoughts when he watched Curry torch the French for four 3-pointers in the final 2:47 of the gold medal game.
Kendal’s loyalty to France shifted his rooting interest away from his favorite player — at least until Curry’s improbable, off-one-leg, rainbow 3 over the outstretched arms of Nicolas Batum and Evan Fournier.
“At the beginning, I was frustrated,” Kendal said of the Curry flurry. “But the last shot I was clapping (he claps), like, ‘It’s OK, you’re the best player, no problem.’ … That last shot, there is no sense.”
No sense at all.