Once players from the NBA go off to represent their respective countries in international play, most of the players return to their NBA teams and have a big season after having that experience. With the 2024 Olympic games now complete, here are some NBA players will that will now look to use the Olympic momentum to make ‘the leap’.
Anthony Edwards
‘Ant Man’ came into the Olympics after having a strong regular season and an even stronger playoff performance where he took his team to the Western Conference Finals. Edwards is firmly in the conversation on ‘who is the next face of the NBA?’ He has the athleticism, shooting, and charisma of a player who is looking to make the leap, but hasn’t won anything yet…..until now. Ant raised some eyebrows in an interview before the Olympics when he declared that the historic Team USA roster had been built around him and that he was the number option on a team that featured Hall of Fame locks such as LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant…just to name a few. After the showcase games that Team USA played, many around the basketball world wondered aloud ‘Was he right?’ While his ‘number 1 option’ observation may have been a little premature, the sentiment is there. Edwards played well off of the bench and was often looked at to score in a few tighter than expected contests during the gold medal run of Team USA. Edwards will take his Team USA experience back to the Minnesota Timberwolves (featuring Rudy Gobert, a fellow Olympian from Team France) as a MVP candidate going into the season where the T-Wolves are a legit championship contender.
Victor Wembanyama
With the Olympics being held in Paris, everything was shaping up for a dream finish for the host country, Team France. Finishing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the Silver Medalists, they were looking for a rematch with Team USA for the gold, and they got it. Led by Victor ‘The Alien’ Wembanyama, Team France knocked off a Canadian National Team that figured to be Team USA’s biggest threat to win gold. Wembanyama then went on to star in the Gold Medal game vs Team USA that took an unreal shooting display from Steph Curry to finally put France away. In his rookie campaign in the NBA, Wembanyama already had put the basketball world on notice with his freakish speed and athleticism for a guy his size which led to him being named Rookie Of The Year for his efforts. With the strong MVP-like showing during the Olympics, Wembanyama will look to lead the Spurs to something that was envisioned for him once the NBA Draft Lottery process awarded the San Antonio Spurs the number 1 pick….being in contention in the stacked Western Conference. He also teamed up on Team France with……
Bilal Coulibaly
Looking at this young player’s stats on Team France and his NBA team, the Washington Wizards, they don’t jump off the page at you. However, it’s his mouthwatering potential that makes him so intriguing and a candidate for ‘the leap’ after his Olympic stint with Team France. Being listed at 6’9 (and possibly growing) Coulibaly’s game consists of him being able to do a little of everything, but the Wizards are going to look for him to be a defensive stopper on a young team that will now feature Jordan Poole, Kyle Kuzma, and newly drafted fellow Frenchman Alex Sarr. Coulibaly showed enough promise for the Wizards early on that he was selected for the NBA Rising Stars game that features the top young talent around the league. Coulibaly figures to be a main cog in not only the Wizards future, but also for Team France looking toward the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Jayson Tatum
Unfortunately, it was not all positive vibes coming out of the Olympic games for the NBA players. Jayson Tatum, who was a member of the 2020 Tokyo Gold medal Team USA team, was caught in a numbers/playing time crunch during the 2024 games. Tatum, fresh off an NBA WORLD (wink) Championship with the Boston Celtics, was widely believed to be one of the top options coming into the Olympics for Team USA. Early on with Kevin Durant out with a calf injury, Tatum was playing big minutes and contributing during the showcase games for Team USA. However, once KD returned, Tatum first racked up a ‘DNP-CD’ vs Serbia in the first official game of the Olympics, then played sparingly the rest of the Gold Medal run. Many around the basketball world think that Tatum may use this snub and lack of playing time during the Olympics and make it his mission to show everyone that Coach Steve Kerr and crew made a mistake by not playing him. Tatum’s numbers in the NBA are already First Team All-NBA worthy, but with this development, he may push to win not only back-to-back championships with the Celtics but an MVP award as well. Should be an interesting subplot to watch for this season.
