The reference may have been a bit corny and contrived, but that didn't mean NBC analyst Doug Collins wasn't on to something during the men's basketball final Sunday at the Olympics.
"You know, Marv (Albert), this reminds of that Vanessa Williams song, 'Save the Best for Last,'" began Collins early in the fourth quarter of the Americans' win against Serbia. "Because the United States saved its best for last."
Given the 96-66 final score, it would be hard to argue against that. And other than disgraced American swimmer Ryan "Liar" Lochte and heartbroken U.S. gymnast Gabby Douglas, it would be equally hard to vigorously disagree with NBC talking head Mike Tirico's assessment that the Rio Games deserved an overall grade of "B+."
Because for all the fear and loathing before they began, they pretty much delivered from start to finish. Especially if you understandably and loyally wrapped yourself in our nation's red, white and blue this past fortnight.
From 5-foot-1, 19-year-old Ginny Thrasher winning the country's first gold in Rio in the 10-meter air rifle competition, to 42-year-old cyclist Kristin Armstrong three-peating gold in the individual road time trial the day before her 43rd birthday (those three straight golds are an Olympic cycling record), to the human Fort Knox that is Michael Phelps, to the U.S. women's gymnastics team, to decathlete Ashton Eaton's back-to-back golds, to, finally, our men's and women's hoops champs, American dominance was everywhere. It eventually maxed out at 121 total medals, 51 clear of runner-up China.
Was it perfect? No, but that's thanks mostly to the entitled, immature, ingrate Lochte's embarrassing and justifiably inciting lie about being held at gunpoint and robbed by Brazilian thugs. In truth, after trashing a gas station bathroom, the business's security guards drew their guns and demanded money from Lochte and three fellow U.S. swimmers for vandalizing the property.
While Lochte had a point that language barriers and his own intoxication may have unnerved him, it should in no way exonerate him from his bold lie and spoiled brat behavior from that point forward.
As U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun noted Sunday regarding Lochte and the others: "They let down our athletes. They let down Americans. And they really let down our hosts in Rio who did such a wonderful job, and we feel very badly about that. I think we ended up in the right place in terms of being able to shine a light on what really happened there."
It's a shame we can't shine a spotlight on all the contemptible, disgusting, heartless, insensitive, miserable, soulless, shameful cockroaches who chose to use decidedly unsocial media to attack Douglas for everything from her hair to her demeanor throughout the gymnastics competition.
Yes, Douglas might have comported herself better on the medal stand when the U.S. team won gold. Her hand should have been over her heart for the national anthem, and she might have smiled a bit more. But she had also just gone from rolling into the Olympics as the defending champion in all-around to not even qualifying for that event.
The harsh reality is so many Olympic sports are far more individual than team in nature, and only the individual winners realize any financial gain from their years of hard work. In a sense, Douglas had just watched the Powerball numbers she played every week hit the one week she'd forgotten to play them.
If you're too cold and cruel to appreciate that at least enough to keep your thoughts to yourself, you either need psychiatric help, your rants blocked or exposed to the world - or all three.
But there were plenty of positives for the United States. We've welcomed a new gymnastics star, Simone Biles, who may or may not be wise to follow Douglas's lead in returning for another Olympic run after her stunning 2016 showing.
We've probably said good-bye to Phelps and his 23 gold medals. Then again, maybe the ripe old athletic age of 35 - which Phelps will be in 2020 - isn't what it used to be.
As the cyclist Armstrong proved, the new 40 (or 43) might be the old 30.
"People have asked me, over and over: 'Why? Why am I back?' And it's because I can," she said in victory before later telling the New York Times, "We've been told we should be finished at a certain age, but there are a lot of athletes out there who are showing that's not true."
Four years from now in Tokyo, we could see a 35-year-old Phelps, a 34-year-old Usain Bolt and a 32-year-old Eaton all adding to their hardware and their legacies.
We won't see basketball star Carmelo Anthony, who played in four Olympics and won gold in his final three.
"I committed to this in '04," he said Sunday. "I've seen the worst and I've seen the best. In spite of everything's that going on in our country right now, we've got to be united. I'm glad we represented (our country) in the fashion that we did."
Thankfully, other than Lochte, that could be the response of every other U.S. Olympian who competed in these Rio Games, regardless of where they finished.
Now if we could just the social media monsters to behave half as well.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.