“ It’s showtime, baby! ” For the Paris Olympics, the United States “appealed” and assembled the Dream Team 2.0 to win the gold medal in men’s basketball. For that, they couldn’t be missing…

• LeBron James : One of the greatest — if not the greatest — players in NBA history.
• Stephen Curry : The man largely responsible for revolutionizing the way basketball is played in the American league.

Although they are great rivals when it comes to the NBA, they both know very well what it means to represent the place where they were born… And we’re not talking about the USA.

The two biggest names of the last generation of basketball are from Akron, a city of 200 thousand inhabitants in the state of Ohio — in fact, they were born in the same hospital .

On the court, LeBron was already a 4x All-Star when he saw Steph wearing the colors of Davidson University. In this video , LJ talks about the young player’s great potential, but little did he know what was to come.

4 years of frantic clashes

(Image: Getty Images)

From 2015 to 2018, LeBron James and Stephen Curry found themselves face to face dueling for the NBA title, contributing to the emergence of a new rivalry in the league.

In the first match, Curry made Bron “dance” — remember here — and, helped by the absences of Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving on the Cleveland side, won his first ring in the league, which bothered the Cavs star.

The following season, Curry became the first unanimous MVP in league history , a fact that really affected LeBron, who decided to respond on the court.

The result: James led the greatest comeback in history to win the 2016 title after trailing 3-1 in the series against the Golden State Warriors.

• The “tension” of the confrontation was so great that LeBron threw a Halloween party with provocations to Curry and Klay Thompson .

However, what Bron didn’t expect was the addition of Kevin Durant to the Warriors roster. With this huge help, Steph stood out in the competition by winning the title in the following two seasons .

More friendly relationship

We can say that the relationship between the two stars went through several stages: confrontation, contempt, provocations until reaching maximum mutual respect . All this thanks to maturity.

LeBron and Curry have faced off again in the years since, with positive results for both sides. But in recent days, the stars have shown the world how they are even more dominant playing together.

The Avengers

(Image: USA Basketball)

This is how LeBron James defined the Olympic champion team in Paris.

In the semifinals, the US struggled against Serbia, trailing by 13 points at the end of the third quarter. But in the “clutch time”, LeBron and Curry put the ball under their arms and decided the match .

In the big decision, things were no different. Even playing against the home team, the two put France to sleep .

Image: Getty Images)

Four 3-pointers in a row for Steph towards the end of the game — including this absurd basket — and LeBron won the title of best player of the competition.

Imagine them playing together in the NBA? It would be the prime of prime. LOL.