I had never been to Rio de Janeiro before, or to Brazil. I'd only been to South America twice. Once was in 2000, when I coached Diana Taurasi in Argentina the summer before her freshman year. Later, I went to Chile to see Breanna Stewart play in a tournament. So now, we're in Rio 2016 and I'm coaching both of them on the same team for the Olympics. It's funny how things work out.

There's been a lot of discussion about Brazil in the news lately, and most of it has been very negative. But none of what the media talk about regarding Brazil was evident during the three weeks we were in Rio. I'm sure that stuff is there. But what we found was an incredible group of people who worked very, very hard to make the Games a success. We saw parts of the city that were absolutely beautiful. I think that's like any major city; if you want to, you can focus on the really negative parts of a city and those things are definitely there. But we really only saw the positive aspects of Rio during the entire time we were there.

As most people know by now, we stayed on a cruise ship in Rio's harbor due to a lack of hotel rooms available for all of the athletes. There were positives and negatives to that setup. We try to eliminate as many distractions as possible for the entirety of the Games, so in that respect it was a great positive to be far away from the Village. It allowed our athletes time to recharge and rest away from the craziness. A similar tactic was taken for the 2012 Games in London; we stayed in a hotel in the center of town. But that setup meant we could just get out of the hotel and walk where we needed to go, or take the subway, and everything we needed to do was relatively close by. In Rio, everything was very spread out so we had to get bused around everywhere, and as a result we didn't get a chance to see as much of the city as we would have liked.

During non-game days, though, we'd have practice for an hour and do a lot of media, then see if we could sight-see or give the players time to rest. These people are professionals; they know how to prepare mentally. We don't have to babysit them. So on my few days off I tried to see other events; I went to beach volleyball on Copacabana Beach, which was like going to a giant beach party, and I got to see Bubba Watson on the golf course. Other members of our group went to track and field and a few took trips to the Olympic Village to visit friends on other teams or in other sports.

On one of our early days off during the pool games we took the entire team to Christ the Redeemer. There's this huge area at the base of the statue just jammed with people overlooking the city. I'd venture to say that just about every language in the world was being spoken up there, at the same time, and people were lying down on these mats that you can use to look straight up at the statue and take pictures of the whole thing. And the view is one of the most amazing you'll ever see.

The atmosphere of the Games themselves, as you can imagine, was one of immense excitement. Take the Final Four and multiply it by one thousand and you get a sense of what it was like. The Olympic Boulevard, where they had the NBA House and where a lot of sponsors have their setups — there was a giant mall that stretched a few miles, and music and restaurants. The first Saturday night, there were around 60,000 people walking up and down that boulevard. And this wasn't even the Village — this was right near where we were staying!

The overall experience was much different than my previous two experiences at the Olympic Games. I was an assistant coach for the 2000 Sydney Games under Nell Fortner, and because I was an assistant, I didn't feel a lot of pressure to do a good job. But in London I felt a lot of self-inflicted stress. It was my second international coaching job after the FIBA World Championships in 2010 — as a result I really felt like I was still learning my way through it. But in Rio, it was a more relaxed state of mind. There was a comfortable feeling among all of us. The trust was higher. And I really wanted to make sure everyone got a fair shake — at one point during the Serbia game, someone suggested I put in Stewie because we needed to move some pieces around. I put her in, and sat down on the bench, and realized that every player for us on the floor was a former UConn player. I thought to myself, “Oh boy, this better work out, or people are going to be mad at me!” Thankfully it worked out. But I think people don't recognize that the USA committee didn't pick these players because of their connection to me. They were picked because of what they've done after college, which I think is a really important distinction.

The Rio Olympics were incredibly special because you don't know how many of these athletes will be back for another Olympics or how long they'll go on after this. The veterans on this team — five players who have won upward of 17 gold medals between them at the Olympics — you don't know who's coming back. Tamika Catchings, of course, has announced she's retiring, but the rest of them, who knows? So it was very important to me to enjoy all of it and enjoy the time I had with everyone. You appreciate people like Lindsay Whalen and Sue Bird and Seimone Augustus. You get to see someone like Stewie or Elena Delle Donne or Brittney Griner win their first Olympic gold medal and see their emotions and tears. And even getting to see players like Kia Nurse play great for Team Canada. You can't put a value on that.

All of these things are above and beyond strategizing the best ways to, say, beat Serbia or something. All of that was secondary to enjoying this time with these people.

At the end of the Games in London I walked off the court thinking, “I never want to do this again” because of all the pressure I had put on myself and all of the pressure I felt to deliver the goods for Team USA. But when the buzzer went off at the end of the gold medal game in Rio… I want to feel like that at the end of every single season. Doug Bruno and I were standing in the middle of the court crying like babies, because you just don't know if this is the last time you'll be with all of these people, in this exact circumstance, so you really want to enjoy every single minute of it. And I think we did.