Anthony Edwards is two wins from adding LeBron James and Luka Dončić to his collection of playoff victims

We're watching a torch-seizing in the NBA

In hindsight, it's a bit surprising how comfortably Anthony Edwards deferred to the NBA's elder statesmen at the Olympics.

The brashest player in the NBA happily came off of the bench as Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant led Team USA to gold. Never mind that he'd just swept Durant out of the playoffs. He played only 13 minutes when Team USA overcame Nikola Jokić and Serbia in the semifinals. Maybe the game wouldn't have been so close if Edwards had seen more minutes. After all, he'd just beaten Jokić in the playoffs too.

That Olympic tournament set up what essentially became the narrative of professional basketball for the next year. It was supposed to be one last ride for a legendary generation of American players, one that would set Edwards and his generational cohort up to take the torch gracefully. Instead, James partnered up with Luka Dončić, Curry got Jimmy Butler, and Kawhi Leonard, not even healthy enough to go to Paris, started to look like himself again. Suddenly, the old guys still had it.