The USA Basketball team who took the floor against Finland today was supposed to be one of the weaker iterations of the American powerhouse that’s won the last World Championship (now called the FIBA World Cup), and the last two Olympic gold medals. That said, they dominated Finland on Saturday with some stellar defense, and the last addition to the team, after Paul George went down, Rudy Gay, even skied for a pretty one-handed thump.
Gay wasn’t even in Vegas for tryouts, but he was on the 2010 World Championship team, and was in the last round of cuts for the 2012 Olympic team. He’s got international experience, so Coach K brought him aboard with a dearth of big, athletic wings following George’s broken leg.
Gay showed off his hops and his athleticism when James Harden — playing unusually frisky defense with a team-high four steals on the day — intercepted a pass near mid-court and found Gay for the soaring one-handed slam:
https://vine.co/v/OBOLHnPjQdB/embed/simple
Gay finished with 10 points on 5-for-9 from the field and five rebounds.
(Vine via Mike Prada, GIF via @_MarcusD_)
What do you think?
Follow Spencer on Twitter at @SpencerTyrel.
Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.
Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.
