The United States basketball team at the World Championships isn’t always as formidable as it is at the Olympics. In the previous championship of the planet, the “stars and stripes” were left completely without prizes. But the Spaniards were rivals of those who set trends in the game with the orange ball, so the tone of the comments in the media and social networks was harsh, but still did not cross the line beyond which the mockery begins and a storm of indignation.
This time the Americans managed to unpleasantly surprise their fans twice. In the group stage, the team that the titled Steve Kerr led to the World Cup this time lost to the Lithuanians. And although this failure did not have a serious impact on the design of the tournament, the country’s leading sports publications erupted in a series of angry materials, which emphasized that such defeats do not affect American sports as a whole, and the head coach should think seriously. about how situations like this don’t happen again. .
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A sure win over Italy in the quarter-finals seemed to calm some of those willing to mount a demonstrative verbal retaliation against recent idols. Moreover, next in line for the American team was a German team, modest at first glance. German basketball players attended the World Cup for the seventh time in its history. And just by reaching the quarterfinals, they’ve already jumped over their heads.
People of the level of the former NBA star Dirk Nowitzki in the main sensation of this championship in this German team are not in sight. However, Gordon Herbert’s team managed to jump over their heads and added more than a hundred points to the American ring. The final numbers on the scoreboard surprised those who until then believed that the American team could beat any opponent, if it only wanted to. 111:113 – and Steve Kerr’s team now only has to fight for bronze. And basketball fans from across the ocean, despite the clear priority in their eyes of the upcoming NBA season, instead of anger, began to openly laugh at their team.
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Olin from social networks parodied the dialogue of the players on the pitch, in which Anthony Edwards asks the German team player where he is from. And, receiving the answer, he is perplexed: “Where is he?” Several fans immediately wrote that they feel cheated after such a loss and regret spending time watching the match. American basketball fans also blame Steve Kerr for the fact that the best player on the court in the semifinal game was a man only 22 years old. And this is just a reaction, as they say, on a chase.
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At the Olympic Games in Paris, the American team will have to solve a very difficult task, even if all the strongest go to the French capital. Because after such a sensitive defeat, it will not be enough to win gold at the main start of the four years: the fans will expect a brilliant show at every match. Gone are the times when the US team beat all its rivals, as they say, in one match, as the team’s performance at the World Cup confirmed. So the stars of North American basketball next year will have a very hot summer.
