The United States men’s basketball team are Olympic champions for a fifth consecutive time after weathering a brilliant effort by 20-year-old phenom Victor Wembanyama to grind out a 98-87 win over a dogged France side on Saturday night.
Less than 48 hours after surviving a touch-and-go semi-final against Serbia that saw their quest for a fifth straight gold dangling by a thread, the Americans overcame a superb 26-point outing by Wembanyama and a hostile crowd inside the cauldron-like Bercy Arena, where the hosts were hoping to become the first side to win men’s basketball gold on home soil since the US did so in 1996.
