Team USA and its men's basketball team will never live up to its lofty heights Dream Team of the 1990s and some fans realize that the comparisons are both unfair and necessary. That said, the current Team USA squad defeated Team France in a gold medal game that was the most-watched contest of its kind since the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Team USA, which had a tough game against Team Serbia led by Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, faced the France Men's Basketball team with the home team featuring young standouts, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Webanyama, along with fellow NBA teammates Nicolas Batum, Evan Fournier. , Rudy Gobert and Bilal Koulibaly.
On Saturday (August 29), LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant were the unofficial “Big Three” for Team USA with contributions from Anthony Edwards, Derrick White, Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker and Jrue Holiday . Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton saw limited playing time throughout the Olympics. Tatum, who just won the NBA championship this year with the Boston Celtics, took some time in the golden game.
Deadline reports the viewership numbers are in and the event was the most-watched basketball gold medal game since the 1996 Summer Games with a reported 22.7 million viewers during the afternoon contest that began stateside.
Peacock, NBC's streaming service, the men's gold medal game also earned the highest viewership numbers on NBCUniversal's digital platforms with 2.7 viewers per minute. That good fortune spread to other sports as well with the US Women's National Team and their 1-0 triumph over Team Germany becoming the most watched gold medal game for the sport since 2004.
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Photo: Getty
