End of an era? LeBron, Steph and KD as the NBA's elders

As the bus of Americans edged to the curb after midnight in the Opera district of central Paris in August, its occupants poured out in jubilation, gripping champagne bottles and chomping on cigars with medals swinging from their necks.

At the end of a specially designed tunnel into their hotel, which featured a massive image of Kobe Bryant over a message to shut up critics, were their children, lined up and waiting for hugs. Their families, friends and agents, armed with confetti poppers and cell phones in video mode, stood just behind.

For Team USA's three veteran leaders -- LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry -- it was a wonderful feeling. Celebrating gold medals with Steve Kerr, Ty Lue and Erik Spoelstra, coaches with whom they'd individually won gold trophies, made it a familiar feeling.

And, upon reflection, a bit of an old one too.

"It felt damn good to play meaningful basketball. That fire and desire was brought back to me," James said a month later, still basking in the glow of the gold medal win over France.

"To have that feeling again, where you're playing meaningful, real -- every possession means something -- if you make a mistake, it burns you. It was good to relive that moment."

Durant knew exactly what James meant. It seems it was the "old" part that triggered their reaction.

"It was good to refresh the brain a bit," Durant said. "Sometimes you can go through the motions a bit throughout your career when you haven't been on that podium."

Standing on that podium in Paris will be a lasting memory. In the NBA, though, such memories are in danger of fading. It's the paradox that James, Curry and Durant find themselves in coming out of the Olympics -- and into the 2024-2025 season.

Their collective performance over the summer was awe-inspiring and a reaffirmation of their place in the game. Durant had several brilliant games; James was selected Olympics MVP at age 39; and Curry, perhaps most memorably, made 17 3-pointers combined in that tour de force semifinals and finals run.

But as they come into this season, James, Durant and Curry find themselves in a most unfamiliar position -- all underdogs to play in such high-stakes games in their home league.

From 2012-22, James, Durant or Curry held the Larry O'Brien trophy eight times. It has been only 27 months since the Golden State Warriors' last title. It was only 16 months ago that James and the Los Angeles Lakers were in the Western Conference finals.

Last season, all three were home by the end of the first round. And, frankly, that has been a trend. The Lakers have won a first-round series only once since 2020. Last season, for the third time in five years, the Warriors missed the playoffs altogether.

Durant, for his part, hasn't been past the second round since his Achilles injury in the 2019 Finals. But there's hope Bradley Beal will be healthier and blend in better with Durant and Devin Booker, and the Suns are more highly regarded as contenders this season than James' Lakers or Curry's Warriors. Still, with the challenges of an even deeper Western Conference, the odds they contend for a title are long. ESPN BET gives the Suns the ninth-best championship odds entering the season.

"If you ask, all 30 teams ...have championship aspirations. You probably take eight of them serious," Curry said. "We just have the shadow of ...expectations that we're supposed to be in that conversation."

The Warriors and Lakers, fairly or not, are not in that conversation. They are very much in the shadow of it.

Getting better for the Warriors, this season, would simply mean dodging the play-In tournament, where they've found themselves the past two seasons. The Lakers are in a similar position; they haven't finished higher than seventh in the West in the past four years.

Curry, James and Durant were all selected All-NBA last season. They were the three oldest players selected. Curry played in 74 games, his most in six years. Durant played in 75, his most in five years. James played in 71, the most since he came to the Lakers. Then they dominated in the Olympics. These are not the details of players on the decline.

But the overarching conversation during that timeframe -- and now -- has remained the same: Who is next in line to replace them as the faces of the league?

That's the natural order, yes, but it's also because Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder are playing on better, more relevant teams. And that's just to name a few.

"I can still get it done," James said, referencing what his powerful Olympic performance proved. "I do have a lot in the tank. A lot. I can help a big part of a team win the ultimate."

He can. But whether he -- or Durant or Curry -- will, again, is quite another matter. Not that any of them are ready to concede.

"When you've been in this league so long, when you've experienced winning and being on top, the goal is still to win it," Durant said. "Regardless of what happened last season."