
When you look down the roster of this years gold medal USA basketball team, you wouldn’t expect Kyle Lowry to be a key factor in the USA’s perfect record throughout the Olympics in Rio. According to USA Assistant Coach Jim Boeheim like Kevin Durant, Paul George, Klay Thompson, and Kyrie Irving, it was Lowry who played like the best team player out there.
According to an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg, Boheim said Lowry’s leadership and overall heart is what helped Team USA propel to victories. Per Rosenberg:
Last spring, Lowry was the best player on a Toronto Raptors team that made the Eastern Conference finals. This summer, he was a backup point guard for Team USA. In the U.S.’s gold-medal victory over Serbia, Lowry took just five shots. Yet U.S. assistant coach Jim Boeheim said Lowry, “was the best team player out of everybody. He just really bought in and was a great leader and gave everything he had every time he went out there. That was important for our team.”
The stats are their to prove Boeheim’s case. Lowry shared the best defensive rating on Team USA with Jimmy Butler, and he also averaged 5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4 assists, and about 1 steal a game. Despite not boasting the best stats during the tournament, Lowry was essentially the heart of this Team USA team. Lowry wasn’t on the first 30-man cut of the USA roster earlier this year, but eventually made his way up the point guard rankings to land him a spot on the 12-man roster. The Toronto Raptor proved himself in this tournament, an experience that is sure to help him next year leading the Raptors.