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Shocker: US basketball team filled with NBA stars falls to Nigeria 90-87 in pre-Olympic opener
Associated Press ^ | 07/11/2021 | Tim Reynolds

Posted on 07/11/2021 11:36:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

LAS VEGAS (AP) — This is not how USA Basketball expected to open its Olympic summer.

Nigeria probably didn’t expect it, either.

If there was any expectation of invincibility for the Americans heading into the Tokyo Olympics, it’s already gone — after Nigeria beat the U.S. 90-87 on Saturday night, an international shocker pulled off by a roster primarily filled by little-known NBA players that found a way to beat a group of All-NBA, All-Star and max-contract performers.

“We just wanted to compete,” said Nigeria’s Gabe Nnamdi, who goes by Gabe Vincent when playing for the Miami Heat. “We know what USA Basketball means around the world and what they’ve stood for for so long.”

The U.S. had lost 11 games before Saturday in major international play — Olympics and World Cups, mostly — since NBA players began filling the American rosters with the first Dream Team in 1992. None of those losses came against a team from Africa.

"I thought that the Nigerian team played very physically, did a great job in that regard and knocked down a lot of 3s,” U.S. coach Gregg Popovich said. “Give them credit.”

Nnamdi led Nigeria with 21 points. Caleb Agada scored 17 points, Ike Nwamu added 13 and Nigeria outscored the U.S. 60-30 from 3-point range.

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Society; Sports
KEYWORDS: basketball; basketballplayers; lololol; nba; nigeria; olympics; rofl; sports; usa; wokeolympics
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To: SeekAndFind

The Olympics ended when they went “pro”...


21 posted on 07/11/2021 12:10:42 PM PDT by JBW1949 (I'm really PC.....Patriotically Correct)
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To: arkfreepdom
I’ll root against some usa teams this time. That’s a first for me.

They do not represent me. In fact, they hate me. NOT. MY. TEAM.

22 posted on 07/11/2021 12:12:40 PM PDT by ETCM
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To: SeekAndFind

Sports are hobbies. Anyone dumb enough to pay to watch people pursuing their hobbies should pay a dummy tax.


23 posted on 07/11/2021 12:13:56 PM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: MuttTheHoople

The Nigerians played like men possessed with White rage and triumphed over the NBA (Nothin’ But A-holes) players.


24 posted on 07/11/2021 12:15:04 PM PDT by PTBAA
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To: SeekAndFind

Here is a REAL American!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.military.com/video/off-duty/sports/reservist-hears-national-anthem-stops-mid-attempt/5094001689001


25 posted on 07/11/2021 12:16:50 PM PDT by JBW1949 (I'm really PC.....Patriotically Correct)
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To: SeekAndFind

YAY!!


26 posted on 07/11/2021 12:18:47 PM PDT by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: dfwgator

You just dashed the hopes of hundreds of thousands of wannabe rappers and future NBA stars everywhere!


27 posted on 07/11/2021 12:19:20 PM PDT by proud American in Canada (Fear is a reaction; courage is a decision. Winston Churchill pp)
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To: JBW1949

I do not understand that. For years the only ones without pros were American teams.

The original Olympics were for the best athletes of then ancient World, not amateur. They were all professional warriors and paid assassins who fought for the highest dollar. in short, they were all professionally paid athletes.

Olympics should always be the best athletes, not the best college kids.


28 posted on 07/11/2021 12:29:01 PM PDT by OneVike (Just another Christian waiting to go home)
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To: SeekAndFind

A mere 3-point difference between two teams with NBA/NCAA players—is it really that shocking?


29 posted on 07/11/2021 12:33:39 PM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Americans were probably protesting slavery in Africa today.


30 posted on 07/11/2021 12:40:08 PM PDT by bray (Hating Whites is racist)
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To: SeekAndFind

But. . .I’ll bet they got millions of dollars from that deposed king’s son. . .

Anyway, we don’t have an Olympic team, we have a bunch of selfish and arrogant individual showboats that know nothing of teamwork.


31 posted on 07/11/2021 12:45:22 PM PDT by Hulka
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To: OneVike

Amateurism is a scam. It was created to keep the “deplorables” out of sports. If Jim Thorpe was a Boston Brahmin from Harvard, does anyone honestly think he would have been stripped of his medals?


32 posted on 07/11/2021 12:45:48 PM PDT by wrcase
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To: SeekAndFind

Good


33 posted on 07/11/2021 12:46:21 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: SeekAndFind

Awesome.


34 posted on 07/11/2021 12:51:48 PM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: SeekAndFind

If only kneeling was an Olympic event.


35 posted on 07/11/2021 12:55:39 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: SeekAndFind

Victory is sweet.
My brothers make me proud.
Oh, i am supposed to be ashamed?
Wokeness is so durn confusing.


36 posted on 07/11/2021 12:57:01 PM PDT by Honest Nigerian
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To: MuttTheHoople
Gee, I wonder why I'm cheering for America to lose every event in the Olympics?

Ironically, so am I!

37 posted on 07/11/2021 12:57:46 PM PDT by Tommy Revolts
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To: wrcase

Exactly. Amateurism was a way too keep the power of athletics in the hands of the College elites.

Jim Thorp thumped the system many, many, years ago.


38 posted on 07/11/2021 1:02:25 PM PDT by OneVike (Just another Christian waiting to go home)
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To: MuttTheHoople

Yeah, me too.

I’ve always enjoyed watching local high school sports, where I actually know the players - or at least their parents. At that level, I believe participating in sports is an extremely important part of development and culture.

At the college and pro levels, it is nothing but commercial entertainment - potentially lucrative for a few wealthy owners and for the small fraction of young men and women who make to those levels - but it has little redeeming cultural value to society.

Add to that the usual negative impacts whenever money and celebrity is involved - corruption, depravity and a sense of entitlement.

I wouldn’t be at all sorry of college, professional and even Olympic sports were to wither and die.

For those talented enough to compete at that level, there are far more important endeavors than breaking meaningless records.


39 posted on 07/11/2021 1:08:52 PM PDT by enumerated
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To: bray
The Americans were probably protesting slavery in Africa today.

Or protesting the laziness of Uighur slaves producing the Chinese products they endorse. Get those bums back to work!

40 posted on 07/11/2021 1:11:28 PM PDT by TChad (The MSM, having nuked its own credibility, is now bombing the rubble.)
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