Kevin Durant staked his claim as being the best basketball player on the planet after a dominant 29-point performance in the gold medal match against France led Team USA to victory on Saturday morning.
Durant noted how the winning group had overcome adversity on their journey to bring home silverware.
Despite a spirited late comeback from the French team, Durant and co were able to hold off the charge and win the contest 87-82 at the Saitama Super Arena.
Durant was ably supported by his teammates, particularly Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday who contributed 19, 11 and 11 points respectively.
Speaking after the historic win, Durant talked about the process of developing chemistry within the group and the satisfaction of silencing any critics. He said: "This one feels good because we went through a lot.
"We had a lot of first-time guys on the team, new experience for everyone on the team, Covid, the kind of bubble we were in, no fans, no one expecting us to lose.
"I love our country and this team is just amazing, it’s just incredible
"How we came together. The adversity that we went through, so many people doubting us early on too. We get that support from our families, our friends, you know it’s bigger than us. We wanted to come here finish it and look alive."
Team USA struggled in their pre-Olympic scrimmages and at the start of the competition- suffering ugly defeats to Nigeria and Australia in Las Vegas before throwing away a lead against final opponents France in their opening game at the Tokyo 2020 games.
That defeat was followed by five straight wins to see them recover and clinch gold.
The French team were clearly disappointed as they failed to repeat their heroics of the opening fixture and defeat Team USA. Their centre Moustapha Fall acknowledged that despondency while also recognising the achievement of the team.
He said: "Of course, we knew before the match that it's [getting to the final] something that we haven't done for 21 years, so we knew it wasn't a small thing.
"It's hard to get to this point. We've succeeded and that's very good, but I think we're at the point now to go right to the end.
"We really wanted to do something which has never been done - to take home the gold. We fell a bit short. That's sport."
Fall also spoke on the impressive performance by Durant: "We knew he [Team USA's Kevin Durant] sometimes starts the match badly, but he didn't start badly, he started really, really strong and scored half the points from the start. So it was really complicated.
"He's a great player, everyone knows it."
Team USA's gold medal is their 16th title in 19 Olympics basketball tournaments and their fourth in succession after dominating the tournament in Beijing, London and Rio.
Durant is now the most successful player in Team USA basketball history with three golds, joint with Carmelo Anthony. Durant also became Team USA's most prolific scorer at the Olympics ever in Tokyo as he surpassed Anthony's tally and reached 406 total points.
