PARIS — The headlines and hot takes were gathering like storm clouds on the horizon. The United States men’s basketball team was down 17 to Serbia — Serbia? — and you could hear the knives getting sharpened.
Entitled. Selfish. Greedy. Maybe even a Woke or Un-American thrown in there, too. When you suit up for Team USA men’s basketball team, there are expectations, and one of those expectations is that you don’t lose in the semifinal round to freaking Serbia.
There’s also this: when you hail from a league that’s taken some definitive political stances in the last few years, there are a whole lot of people who will delight in your failure no matter what letters are on your chest.