U.S. basketball hangs on for gold

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - One by one the U.S. basketball players bowed to receive their gold medals, each of them flashing a wide, genuine smile.

They were smiles that were a mixture of joy and relief, smiles that had been repressed throughout the Olympics.

"It was just a tremendous feeling, the best moment I've ever had as a basketball player," Vin Baker said, tears falling from eyes as he recalled the moment. "This wasn't an easy journey for us."

No it wasn't, right up until the end.

The U.S. men let France creep within four points with 4 minutes left, but after that, there was no repeat of Lithuania's near miracle in the semifinals. Vince Carter had a double-pump dunk with 1:40 left and the U.S. team scored nine of the game's final 12 points to defeat France 85-75 yesterday.

It was the 12th gold medal in 14 Olympic basketball competitions for the United States, but this one will be remembered as the Olympics when the rest of the world caught up.

"We played together, and came up and proved we're the best team in the world," Allan Houston said. "It was a little bit tougher than I thought. Nobody can tell us we didn't earn it. That's what makes it even more special.

"We had to play every second for the gold medal that we got."

The final victory margin of 10 points was the lowest ever for the United States in a gold-medal victory. It was the fifth time in these Olympics that the Americans won by 15 or fewer points, quite a difference from 1996 and 1992 when the U.S. teams won every game by at least 22 points and often had victory margins of 40 points or more.

"What this Olympics demonstrated is that the competitive level of international basketball has improved - more so than casual observers of the game understood,'' NBA commissioner David Stern said.

That competitiveness didn't manifest itself in the gold medal to the same degree it had in the semifinals.

France led only twice, 2-0 after scoring the first basket of the game and 7-6 on two free throws by Stephane Risacher following a technical foul on Gary Payton for getting in the face of a French player during a stoppage in play.

Still, the Americans found themselves ahead just 76-72 after Antoine Rigaudeau hit a 3-pointer with 4:26 left to complete a 16-4 run that turned a slow-paced, foul-plagued game into an interesting one.

Kevin Garnett followed with a put-back after the U.S. team grabbed two offensive rebounds, Alonzo Mourning hit two foul shots and Garnett scored on a bank shot to restore a 10-point lead and end any thoughts France might have had of duplicating Lithuania's feat of two days earlier.

"Just wanted to keep it going," Carter said. "Didn't want to make it this far to quit. If we were going to lose, we were going to go down fighting."

After Carter put an exclamation point on the victory with his showtime dunk, the U.S. coaching staff started hugging each other on the sideline.

When the final buzzer sounded, the American men walked over and exchanged high-fives with the women's team, who won their gold medal Saturday night.