Team USA basketball had a record-setting win over Nigeria at the London Olympics on Thursday, but they couldn’t completely enjoy the near-flawless performance.
The US won 156-73 and set records for most points, three-pointers, field goals, and highest field-goal percentage in an Olympic game. But just because the team was extraordinarily hot during the game doesn’t mean they were trying to humiliate their opponent. And if you suggested that to Coach K, he was not happy.
Mike Krzyzewski became defensive when asked in the postgame news conference about the team running up the score.
“We didn’t play LeBron [James] and Kobe [Bryant] in the second half, and with Carmelo shooting like that, we benched him,” Krzyzewski said, per Yahoo! Sports. “We didn’t take any fast breaks in the fourth quarter, and we played all zone. You have to take a shot every 24 seconds, and the shots we took happened to be hit.
“I take offense to this question because there’s no way in the world that our program in the United States sets out to humiliate anyone.”
Nigeria actually had some decent talent on the team — Al-Farouq Aminu, Ike Diogu, and Tony Skinn — but that’s nothing compared to a squad full of first-team All-NBA players, especially when they were on fire.
Questions about teams running up the score should only come if there are clear signs that a team was acting unsportsmanlike. I don’t believe that was the case here and, man, I wouldn’t want to be the one accusing Coach K of that in the future.
