Sam Amick

USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO — DeAndre Jordan was talking about Mike Krzyzewski’s smile.

It was a news conference alley-oop if ever there was one, the Team USA center discussing how his Olympic coach’s unending happiness makes it easy to play for him and Krzyzewski — seated at his side after their 82-76 win over Spain the semifinal showdown — trying his best to finish the flush. So he stared at Jordan with a forced ear-to-ear grin, even tapped him on the shoulder in an attempt to make eye contact and land the laugh that reporters were so ready to provide. Alas, Jordan never looked his way.

It was one of the few times in this Rio experience that he missed a chance to share a good time.

Even before Jordan’s monster game on Friday, when he turned in a dominant defensive performance that included 16 rebounds, four blocks, and nine points on the other end, this had been a two-month long joy ride for the Los Angeles Clippers big man who spent the past few seasons in search of this kind of satisfaction.

“It’s cool, man,” Jordan told USA TODAY Sports afterward. “It’s fun to be finally be able to have something to call your own a little bit.”

U.S. swimmer's money will support sports programs in Rio

Jordan, whose past few seasons have been full of so many frustrations, was clearly in need of this kind of hoops getaway.

From his free agency debacle in the summer of 2015 (when he chose Dallas before doubling back amid rumors that he was done playing with Chris Paul) to the Blake Griffin controversy last season (when the Clippers forward missed five weeks with a broken hand after punching the team’s former assistant equipment manager that was a close friend of them both) and the unpleasant reality that he has neither an NBA title nor an All-Star berth to his name, this has been a tough and drama-filled stretch for Jordan.

The unfortunate part is that all of the drama overshadowed much of what he accomplished: he is, more than ever, one of the game’s most dominant and unique defenders and a player whose value to the Clippers is still routinely underappreciated by the masses.

All of which makes this challenge that much more special. With Paul and Griffin having opted against taking part, and his Team USA teammates in this new setting showing him so much love and respect during his first experience with the national team, Jordan is free and fulfilled in a way that may not be possible in his NBA setting. What’s more, the simplicity of this challenge makes it all that much easier to enjoy: do whatever it takes to win a gold medal, and bask in the glory of it all if you help pull it off.

“I really wanted to play (on this team),” Jordan said. “If I didn’t, then I would have worked my (expletive) off in the summer and got ready for the (NBA) season. But when the opportunity came, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m down. I’m going. I’m playing.’

“From the journey that I’ve had in this league, from being a second-round pick (out of Texas A&M in 2008), falling in the draft, not playing a lot my first two years and then finally playing a little bit, and kind of coming up short a little bit each year. But this is cool to be one of the 12 guys to represent the whole country on the basketball court.”

There was the one exception to all this bliss, of course. Jordan and a few teammates made an accidental trip to a brothel early on in their Rio experience, but that story didn’t last long thanks to the Ryan Lochte shenanigans that continue to dominate the headlines. Now Jordan, who sparked a debate in recent days by claiming that a gold medal would be even more valuable to him than an NBA ring, wants to finish the job in the finale on Sunday.

“This is special, man,” he said. “It happens every four years. Millions of people watch the NBA Finals, but the whole world watches the Olympics. I just feel like it’s super special. This is something that not a lot of people get to even play in, let alone win a gold medal. I’m enjoying the process.”

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