Between the team that he grew up on and France’s current opponent in the Olympics, Tony Parker has a favorite. The Spurs legend has represented his home country internationally before. And yes, he’s rooting for France at the Paris games. But it’s hard for him not to root for his friends in Team USA. He’s competed against the veterans of the team during his NBA career and he loves the combination. Kevin Durant’s continued dominance at the Olympic level especially is giving him flashbacks of the ’92 Team USA.

Parker was in Paris as a torchbearer for France. Shortly after Team USA’s opening game win against Serbia, USA Today caught up with with the 4x champion to find out what he thinks about the current Team USA. He called the makeup of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and reigning Boston Celtics champions “Unbelievable.” And he’s also heard the comparisons.

“A lot of people are comparing them to their 1992 [team]. It was always going to be hard for me to say that they better than 92 because I’m a huge Michael Jordan fan.” Parker might be displaying the impact of the Dream Team. When it brought an All-Star squad to Barcelona three decades ago, it opened up the NBA to the world. And we’ve had an influx of international talent in the league à la the Parisien Torpedo. His rookie NBA season overlapped with Michael Jordan’s retirement years and to date, he maintains MJ is his GOAT.

So in all the Dream Team vs Redeem Team/or any other version of Team USA debates, his loyalty goes to Jordan’s squad. The 2024 team though comes very close for him. In fact, he says, “If there one team that is close to the ’92 has got to be the ’24 team.”

He’s definitely putting the ’24 team over the Redeem Team even though, “Kobe [Bryant] is the closest to Michael in my opinion.” The game changer for Parker here is KD’s performance.

Tony Parker sees Jordan-like greatness on ’24 Team USA

Kevin Durant sat out the pre-Olympics exhibition to become the showstopper of the actual games. From the minute he stepped on the court in the opening game, he exploded with 21 points in under ten minutes. He finished that game with 23 points overall, making Team USA history once more in an opening game scoring record rivaling Dream Team’s scoring leader, Charles Barkley.

That outing prompted Parker to say, “I think they’re [Team USA] playing great basketball, especially, they have KD back now and KD was unbelievable in the first game.” 

Durant had 14 points in the win against South Sudan and on track to make 500+ points in his fourth Olympic appearance. He’s already Team USA’s all-time leading scorer. He’s certainly giving Parker plenty of reason to question his loyalty to the Dream Team. Question is, what happens when it’s Wemby’s France vs Team USA?

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting pilot episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and SEC All-Freshman Team Selection, Silas Demary Jr.