A petty tweet by the official account slightly dampens an unreal victory by Steph Curry and the USA Basketball Men’s National Team to secure the gold medal vs. France.
Reflecting on last year, NBA players and the NBA Twitter community were stunned when Lyles, a star in track and field for Team USA, went on a rant questioning the legitimacy of NBA champions labeling themselves as “world champions.”
Lyles rightly pointed out that while the champions of the four major American sports leagues are often called “world champions,” they aren’t actually competing against the rest of the world as athletes do in track and field and other Olympic sports. His tone is light-hearted when he playfully critiques the NBA.
This is a contrast to the brash sprinter’s controversial remarks at last year’s World Championships, where he criticized Team Canada after another disappointing 4×100-meter relay performance by the U.S. men’s track and field team. Canada won gold while the U.S. didn’t even medal, which drew the ire of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Fast forward to an unbelievably memorable victory from the old-man trio of Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant to outlast a frisky France team, led by 20-year-old new NBA sensation Victor Wembanyama, 98-87.
The official USA Basketball account couldn’t help themselves and stooped low for no reason whatsoever. (In case the tweet gets deleted, it simply says, “Are we the world champs now?”
The USA Basketball Men’s National Team is an NBA All-Star team of the greatest players across the league and the world. They were heavily favored to win the gold medal. Steph Curry went full nuclear Steph in the fourth quarter to fend off a relentless French national team in front of an electric home crowd at Accor Arena.
Why USA Basketball thought this was a good idea, especially during the Summer Olympics as a unified Team USA, is baffling? Maybe Joel Embiid got a hold of the account?
