Pop getting roasted - Team USA loses to Nigeria and Australia and France
doubledragon
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Gregg Popovich is getting roasted on Twitter because Team USA basketball lost an exhibition game to Team Nigeria 90-87.
Team USA suffers shocking exhibition basketball loss to Nigeria
Team USA suffered a big upset with weeks to go before the Olympics
Team USA suffered a tough pre-Olympics loss to Nigeria on Saturday night, 90-87.
It was the first of five exhibition games for the U.S. ahead of the Tokyo Games in a few weeks. The U.S. previously beat Nigeria in the 2012 Olympics, 156-73. Team USA had never lost to a team from Africa before Saturday, according to the team’s website.
Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal and Jayson Tatum headlined the Olympic roster. Durant, who is fresh off of an early playoff exit with the Brooklyn Nets, finished with 15 points.
He started slow, making only two of his first 11 shots on the night, according to ESPN.
Nigeria won big from beyond the arc.
The team was 20-for-42 threes in the game, according to ESPN.
The U.S. had been 54-2 in exhibition games coming into the Nigeria matchup. The U.S. was No. 1 in the FIBA rankings. Nigeria was No. 22.
The Nigerian Olympic roster has five NBA players on it. Gabe Vincent, who plays for the Miami Heat, had 21 points. Caleb Agada, who plays in Israel, finished with 17 points.
The U.S. will play Australia on Monday. The U.S. starts its Olympic schedule on July 25 against France.
Comments
Pop is getting roasted on Twitter, here's a little taste of the anger people are expressing.
Another person on Twitter posted this is what Gregg Popovich drew up for the last play.
The players should be ashamed of themselves more so than Pop, that’s the way I look at it anyways
USA was -30 point favorite and
-10000 on the betting line.
My guess is a few of the USA players were in on the fix. Rarely does a 30 point favorite lose a game, but it happens.
I would say they just didn’t care enough to play to win. I highly doubt multiple guys all got together on a fix
True, but with Nigeria at +1700 just think of how easy it is for a couple of players to phone some friends and let them know a “few of the guys aren’t feeling well”.
I totally see your point and I’m not saying it definitely didn’t happen but there is so much risk involved in that type of thing, especially with how nothing is kept quiet these days
I remember when the 2004 Athens Team USA failed to win the gold medal and had to settle for bronze. They had Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Dwayne Wade, and Tim Duncan, that was embarrassing. In my opinion, we should be winning gold every olympics, that Athens team was a disgrace.
U.S.A. could have easily lost on the level. There’s a part of me that still believes that fixes happen a lot, especially in boxing where it’s just one guy. Not so much in team sports though. Too hard to control that many guys.
I’m sure they just lost the game, but basketball has historically been the most fixed team sport.
Here they are with their bronze medals, it hurts to even look at these pictures, and you can tell by the expressions on their faces that they knew they blew it.
They deserved the shame
Yes they certainly do, a complete disgrace!
Win some lose some. What's the big deal?
Well they may have lost the game. But perhaps they got a tip about some Nigerian prince wishing to leave the country, but he needs an outside source to transfer his inherited fortune. So he'll transfer 10 million to you which you will split with him after he settles in the United States. But first you have to transfer to him 500k for the wire transfer and other fees, then he can promptly send you the 10 million.
That sure is an easy way to earn a cool 4.5 million dollars, right?
Doesn't the Nigerian prince accept paypal? I don't trust wire transfers, I've heard bad stories. If the Nigerian Prince won't accept paypal, the deal is off!
No big deal if you want to embarrass yourself on the world stage I guess
Yes, Team USA basketball supposed to be the measuring stick for basketball, with all of our talent we should be embarrassed to lose.
"If you ain't in it to win it, then you shouldn't be in it."
"If you ain't in it to win it, then get off my lawn!"
Look at this Nigeria player just manhandle Kevin Durant with this block.
Twitter's reaction to Kevin Durant being stuffed at the rim.
Definitely a chance for some deep pockets to make money, but I agree with @perkdog . I seriously doubt they fixed the game. But I certainly could see that becoming the narrative, one way or the other.
........
No more PayPal. He said something about managed payments 🤷
Durant sure didn't see that one coming. 🤣
58 days until the NFL starts.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
Not good enough, I want NFL football now!
Cannot be soon enough!!
That guy was just drafted by the Heat and was actually considered one of the best defenders from his draft class. I was hoping Boston would grab him with one of their two firsts but they didn’t.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
The game fixed? Not a snowball's chance that happened. Absolute zero.
However a sharp handicapper may have analyzed the game, and for a number of solid reasons, decided that Nigeria was a heckuva good bet at those odds.
If Team USA was going to have a game like this it’s better that it happened now when this loss only really hurt their pride and not much else.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
The original 1992 Dream Team actually lost a scrimmage to college players, of course many people including coach K believed that Chuck Daly threw that game on purpose. Here's a little taste of what I'm talking about, bon appetit!
That and the fact 25% of their team is playing in the NBA Finals right now
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
..........
In my opinion, that is not an excuse.
That's fine but It wasn't meant to be an excuse. It was an exhibition game with an incomplete roster. It is what it is. Maybe it lights a fire.
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I think it's easy to forget that the Nigerian team had 7 NBA players on it themselves.
much ado about nothing. no one remembers or cares one lick about a super bowl winner that lost 3 of its preseason games.
this hodge podge of NBA players had been together for 4 days; very little experience playing together
meanwhile, Nigeria (with NBA talent on its roster) had been practicing as a team since June
ultimately all that matters is bringing home the gold, which is what team USA is going to do
Well they just lost to Australia for good measure
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Yes, and things are getting a little testy between Pop and the media now.
Hopefully they lose another game to like Croatia 🇭🇷 or something 😂😂😂
I'm full prepared to edit this thread again if I must, I think they play Argentina next. Meanwhile in Australia....
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.si.com/.amp/nba/2020/05/07/this-day-sports-history-allen-iverson-practice-rant
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
Team USA basketball, sponsored by Nike.
A live look at Team USA practice....
I’ve been wondering what happened to Jack Black.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
It’s the Dream Teams fault. They made basketball too popular in other countries.
I watched the game highlights for the USA/AUS game and unfortunately they only show all of the made baskets so you can’t really see what they did wrong to lose this game. KD hit a late three to get them within one with about 4ish minutes to go then soon after Tatum put them up 82-80 on a drive to the basket but after that Team USA got outscored 11-1 over the final 3 minutes.
I’ve been curious to see who was the go-to guy down the stretch of the these 2 games when you have about 5-6 players that are that guy for their own teams. Sometimes in situations like this players tend to be too passive when the team really needs someone to take over late. Like picking out a certain defender then running P&R after P&R with KD or Tatum and keep abusing that mismatch even if it means just getting to the line. Judging from the highlights this game looked like a track meet which tends to takeaway what some of your best players do on offense.
Like Nigeria, the Aussies have 7 NBA players as well and this group was much better than the 7 from Nigeria. Patty Mills & Matt Dellavedova were both key contributors on NBA championship teams;Joe Ingles runner up for the 6th man award multiple times;Aron Baynes one of the better defensive centers in the league and Matisse Thybulle just made All-D second team.
Again, ultimately this game hurt nothing but their pride and with three more exhibition games,including Argentine this afternoon then Australia & Spain (which should both be tough games) this US team needs to get their chit together before it actually means something.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
Actually I think that original Dream Team has skewed people’s opinions in this country, now everyone expects every new grouping of US players to win each game by 50 points when their rosters aren’t even close to being comparable to that original DT.
Just looking at this roster alone it wasn’t really assembled as a team like normal well rounded teams are put together. This was more like who can we find that will agree to play?
There’s just one guy who could be considered a center,Bam Adebayo, who is actually just 6-9,then KD whose game is more of a wing. That problem alone led to them getting out rebounded 78-59 in the two games.
They have KD,Lillard,Tatum,Beal,Lavine (and Booker& Middleton once the Finals end) who are all at their best with the ball in their hand.
After Draymond there really isn’t anyone who could be considered an above average defender,maybe Bam. (Edit: they’re expecting Jrue Holiday after the Finals too)
Outside of KD/Draymond and Garland/Love most of these players have never played together outside of an AllStar game here or there. Most of the countries they’ll be facing have cores that have been playing together for years.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
Popovich is a legendary NBA coach. He is well known for his "surly demeanor", which incorporates a lot of great dry humor as well.
Off-topic but interesting, he is also known as an amazingly kind person and an extremely generous tipper.
With all that said, in my opinion it would be best to basically step up and say at the press conference some version of "we got owned and I can't believe we lost" as opposed to his somewhat mitigating comments.
They better get it together before it counts, right now it's starting to get ugly, the fans were booing team USA after that loss to Australia and pop is roasting very nicely, one more loss and dinner will be ready to serve!
Maybe Team USA just isn't a very good "team." Lots of superduper Super Stars yes......but perhaps there might be some "teamwork" issues. I don't know. Time will tell.