Getty Image / Gregory Shamus
Team USA Basketball is normally one of the biggest draws in the Summer Olympics every four years. It makes sense, as they have arguably the most recognizable names of any of Team USA’s athletes.
When the team was trailing Serbia by double digits in Thursday’s 2024 Summer Olympics Men’s Basketball Semifinals, the news spread like wildfire on social media. As it turns out, viewers flocked to their TV’s to watch one of the coolest comebacks in the history of Olympic Basketball.
Team USA trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half, and as many as 15 points in the second half against Nikola Jokic and Serbia. They trailed by eleven with seven minutes and change left in the game, as well, and things looked lost. But, a six-point trip with a Kevin Durant three coupled with an off-ball Jokic foul followed by a Devin Booker three to quickly reduce the lead to five put the USA right back in it. All in all, they outscored Serbia by 17 points in the fourth quarter to win 95-91.
Stephen Curry led all scorers with 36 points, while LeBron James had 16 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 points for a triple-double.
A ton of people tuned in to watch it, too. According to Richard Dietsch, the game averaged 7.8 million viewers total and 13.5 million views from 4-4:45PM when it moved to NBC. Basically, an Olympic Basketball game on a Thursday afternoon put up NBA Finals numbers.
Saturday’s Gold Medal Game (3:30PM ET) against host France should get huge viewership numbers as well as the USA looks to win their fifth-straight gold medal.