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DeAndre Jordan on a potential gold medal: 'I think they're above NBA rings'
DeAndre Jordan, should he win one, would consider his Olympic gold medal more “special” than any NBA championship ring. Should the Los Angeles Clipper win one of those someday, as well.
This is not adjacent to Carmelo Anthony, but this is also not a case of a red, white and blue-clad jingoist gone troppo in the midst of The Best Summer Vacation Ever; throwing down lobs and teaming up with a series of All-Stars on his way to the highest honor for any athlete.
Jordan discussed as much with Marc Stein of ESPN:
“I think they’re above NBA rings,” Jordan told ESPN of the gold medal USA Basketball is chasing here in Rio entering Wednesday night’s quarterfinal game against Argentina.
“I may get in trouble for saying that, but I believe that. I feel like this is more special. You’re not just playing teams in the U.S. You’re playing teams from all over the world. And this is even more special because there’s an NBA champion crowned every year, but this is every four years.
“You’ve got to really think about that, man, because it’s extremely special.”
Anthony, you’ll recall, was criticized to no end for copping to the idea that his career as a player would be well spent by grabbing a third gold medal (alongside one bronze), even if it meant falling short of an NBA championship.
Those comments caused a bit of an uproar amongst those whom you’d expect – those that provide basic cable television entertainment on weekdays for the unemployed and/or day-drinkers at bars – adding more credibility to the idea that successful athletes in the spotlight can never really win. As if representing one’s country in the Olympiad four times and coming out on top three of four times would somehow act as less of an accomplishment than leading, say, the Denver Nuggets over the Orlando Magic in the 2009 Finals.
For Jordan, even with his 50 career playoff games and presence on the 2015-16 All-NBA First Team, this is an entirely different conversation.
This isn’t to denigrate DeAndre, far from it, but he’ll never be considered a franchise player in the same way that Anthony has been since Melo’s 2003 entrance into the NBA. Even when Jordan was a hotly sought-after free agent – in 2011 and especially in 2015 – the suitors in question (Golden State and Dallas) didn’t expect him to lead a team to the title. He would be just asked to rebound, sometimes at a league-leading rate, block shots and to be part of something great.
With just two wins separating him from the greatness that is an Olympic gold medal, Jordan isn’t far off. He was the surprise starter in Team USA’s demolishing of Argentina on Wednesday, and at age 28 a reappearance on the 2020 Olympic squad doesn’t seem out of the question. Should things continue apace for DeAndre Jordan and Team USA, he’ll have earned this.
And the expected outcome should remind us that, yes, this is significant. For as loud as Kevin Garnett and LeBron James can howl in the wake of their wearying NBA championship runs, we shouldn’t have to be told and told again that an Olympic gold medal is something else entirely. Even putting national representation aside.
For Jordan to make this team, it means he’s considered amongst the 12-best at what he does for a living out of a country that does what he does for a living quite well. Yes, LeBron James and several other MVP candidates (including the actual MVP) declined to participate in this year’s Olympic run, but Jordan would have had a spot on the team in the pivot even if James, Stephen Curry, Kawhi Leonard and Russell Westbrook taken part.
By comparison, averaging 7.7 points, 4.7 rebounds (Jordan, shockingly, has only two blocks thus far in the Olympics; though he changes four times as many opposing shot attempts per game) for Team USA in a potential eight games on the way toward a medal may seem like a pittance in comparison to averaging nearly 13 points and 14 rebounds with two blocks a game (as Jordan did last season with the Los Angeles Clippers) in 100 contests between October and mid-June; as one would have to in order to grab an NBA title. That’s not the point.
NBA work is supposed to be regarded as a stepping stone toward Olympic glory. Even if Game 7 of the NBA Finals might out-rank Sunday afternoon’s (potential) gold medal game for Team USA by a 10-to-1 margin in the television ratings, the hierarchy is still in place. However little you might think of the IOC, USA Basketball, and the various sponsorship deals that surround these millionaires representing their country, the ideal still stands.
There’s a reason that Gregg Popovich, perhaps the most respected man in all of basketball, had his San Antonio teams’ 1999 and 2003 championship banners changed from “World Champions” to “NBA Champions” over a decade ago, and why the 2005, 2007 and 2014 San Antonio banners still bear that fact.
This is something different. This is something, well, “special.” Cheers to Carmelo and DeAndre for recognizing as much.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
