What a disgrace!
The US basketball players lose their first test match before the Olympics against Nigeria 87:90. Since the USA played with NBA stars in the national team in 1992, it was only the third defeat in a friendly match (52nd wins).
With mega stars like Kevin Durant (32, Brooklyn Nets), Jayson Tatum (23, Boston Celtics) and Damian Lillard (30, Portland Trail Blazers) the Americans want to win gold in Tokyo (from July 24th).
The start of this mission now went massively wrong!
Nigeria also played with seven current NBA players – but in the best league in the world they are all just followers or bench pressers.
Incredible: At the 2012 Olympics in London, the USA won against Nigeria by 83 points, and in 2016 they won a friendly with 43 points.
Now the embarrassing bankruptcy!
Nigeria hit 20 of their 42 three-point throws and attacked the USA with a tough defense.
US-Trainer Gregg Popovich (72): “In a way, I’m glad it happened. But if we don’t learn from it, it’s useless. For the Olympics it could have been a very important lesson for us. “
Nigeria coach Mike Brown (51), who works in the NBA as an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors: “It was just a test and doesn’t mean anything – but of course it’s still great that an African team was able to beat the USA.”
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