Kevin Durant's Olympics Basketball GOAT Case Strong as Ever After Display vs. Serbia

Coming into the 2024 Olympics, it was pretty well established that Kevin Durant was the best and most prolific player in Team USA's decorated basketball history.

Even before he scored 23 points on nine shots in a 110-84 win over Serbia on Sunday, KD had averaged 19.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists over 22 Olympic appearances. He shot 52.9 percent from the field, 50.0 percent from three and 86.3 percent from the line.

And when you consider that those numbers are coming in contests with 10-minute quarters, and when Durant is playing on essentially All-Star teams with tons of scoring talent, they're even more impressive.

After Sunday's dismantling of Serbia, some of those averages and percentages will climb. KD finished 8-of-9 from the field and 5-of-5 from three. The only shot he missed was his final one of the game.

Before the red-hot shooting performance, there was some question about what Durant might be able to muster for this tournament.

He turns 36 in September. His injury history is pretty robust. And he missed most of Team USA's training camp and exhibition games with a calf injury. Sunday, he came off the bench, a move that suggested he might be physically limited.

But as soon as Durant set foot on the floor, it was clear he was far from hobbled.

KD moved throughout the game like the calf injury never even happened. At one point, he took a hard foul at midcourt that looked more like a rugby sevens play than basketball. Durant merely shook the shoulder check off and playfully flexed toward his bench.

Most encouraging, both for Durant and Team USA, was that his jump shot looked as impeccable as it ever has.

Durant was 8-of-8 from the field in the first half against Serbia, with most of those shots coming with a Serbian hand in or near his face.

Even closing bigs like Nikola Jokić or Nikola Milutinov couldn't bother him, at least not enough to make him miss.

And if Durant continues to shoot with this kind of confidence throughout the tournament, a gold for Team USA almost feels like a foregone conclusion. And that statement comes with a full acknowledgement of the development of basketball talent all over the world over the last two decades.

Serbia entered this tournament as one of the best contenders for a medal and the illusive upset over Team USA. It's now played the Americans twice (including a friendly) and been blown out both times.

And the biggest difference on Sunday—with apologies to LeBron James, who had 21 points, nine assists and eight rebounds—was Durant. In his limited minutes, he completely overwhelmed the Serbians with his shooting.

With his jumpers, LeBron's playmaking and the wide-ranging contributions of Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker, Anthony Davis and Anthony Edwards, USA should win gold. If it does, Durant will have four Olympic medals, all that color.

And if he's at or around 20 points per game (his lowest average for a single Olympics is 19.4), he'll have a very real argument for greatest Olympic basketball player of all time.

For a sport that generates legacy conversations like few others, that means something.

There are certainly arguments for others. Pau Gasol has a strong resume, with 18.0 points, 7.1 rebounds and three medals. Oscar Schmidt never medaled, but he appeared in five different Olympics, averaged 28.8 points and put up a whopping 42.3 in 1988 alone. Manu Ginóbili had some dominant individual runs and has the feather in his cap of winning gold against a field that included USA in 2004.

But no one matches Durant's increasingly unusual combination of individual dominance and team success.

If he does win his fourth Olympic gold, it'll be hard to argue against his case for Olympic basketball GOAT. If he does so while putting up point totals like he did against Serbia on Sunday, it might be impossible to deny.