The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Men's Basketball's Ivey, Durant shine on Sunday at Paris Olympics
07.28.2024 | Men's Basketball, T-Association
Royal Ivey leads South Sudan to historic victory, while Kevin Durant paces Team USA to win over Serbia.
PARIS, France — Sunday's slate in the Men's Basketball competition at the Paris Olympics featured only two games, both involving Group C matchups in pool play. South Sudan led off the day with a 90-79 victory over Puerto Rico, and Team USA followed with a 110-84 win over Serbia.
For the University of Texas Men's Basketball program, Sunday's action represented so much more than simply the two final scores. A pair of former Longhorns provided a truly remarkable and historic doubleheader on the world's biggest stage.
A current Houston Rockets assistant coach who was a four-year starter for Texas (2000-04) and led the Longhorns to three-straight trips to the NCAA Sweet 16 including an appearance in the 2003 Final Four, Ivey is serving as head coach for South Sudan. The youngest nation in the world after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 following decades of conflict, South Sudan made its Olympic debut in Men's Basketball on Sunday.
To put things in perspective, South Sudan's victory marked just the second win for an African country at the Olympics since 1996. It also was only the second win for an African team against a team from the Americas in Olympic history, following Egypt's 66-55 triumph against Cuba in 1952. Since then, the Americas teams had defeated the African teams 33 straight times.
"Being at the Olympics and getting our first win, this is so surreal," Ivey said during his post-game press conference. "I couldn't experience anything better than this. This is a movie. My life is like a movie right now, and I'm in the 42nd chapter. I played 10 years in the NBA and now I'm a coach. I would never have imagined that. I'm the OG, I'm the old head. I thought I'd be a school teacher or run my own prep school, but I'm a coach. All my life, people have told me that I couldn't do this, that I wasn't fast enough, that I wasn't smart enough, and I continue to prove them wrong. Everything is achievable in life, and I am living proof of it."
In his one memorable year at The University of Texas, Durant was the 2007 consensus National Player of the Year before moving on to his legendary career in the NBA. Despite not seeing action in any of Team USA's five exhibition contests over the last three weeks while recovering from an injury, the three-time Olympic gold medalist was cleared to play for Sunday's contest against Serbia.
All Durant did on Sunday was record a game-high 23 points while converting 8-of-9 field goals, including 5-of-5 from three-point range, and 2-of-2 free throws in just 16:44 of game action in Team USA's victory over Serbia. Durant's first half performance was simply one for the ages, as he tallied 21 points while hitting a perfect 8-of-8 field goals (5-of-5 threes) in just eight minutes and 39 seconds of game action.
Moving forward in pool play, the former Longhorns will be on opposite sides of the court on Wednesday when Team USA faces South Sudan (2 p.m. CT).
"That's my brother," Ivey said of Durant. "I love him, but I'll hit him after the Olympics. We know, you know, it's competition. I saw him in the friendly game. I gave him love, but it's competition. He knows that, and I love him and I wish the best for him. That's definitely my little brother. I've known Kevin since he was 18 years old, so we're not talking when he's on the other team. I treat him like another player, and he knows that, but when we get outside the lines, it's always love."
"He's a brother and someone who has impacted my life in many ways, even outside of basketball," Durant said of Ivey. "Seeing his leadership and how far he can take this South Sudan team, it's beautiful. It's big for their country and it's big for him as a young coach. I'm secretly behind them (South Sudan), except when they play against us (Team USA). But he's really doing a great job."