SAITAMA, JAPAN – Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi swear this is hard. We’ll have to trust them on that. For the fifth time, they are each leaving the Olympics with a gold medal, a record that defies nothing. They and their USA basketball program have done everything so well, for so long, that greatness is assumed.
Since 1996, the U.S. has won seven straight gold medals. They have won 54 straight games. They won 52 of those by double digits, and one of the single-digit games was a nine-point win over Nigeria this year that wasn’t really that close.