Several fans believe that Serbia team captain Bogdan Bogdanovic may have poked the bear midway through his team’s semifinal matchup against Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On Thursday, Bogdanovic and Serbia looked poised to upset the Americans in their Olympic men’s basketball clash at Bercy Arena in Paris, France.
Serbia led by as many as 17 points in the second quarter of the contest. However, some fans singled out one gesture from Bogdanovic as the potential turning point of the game.
With 3:40 left in the second quarter, the Atlanta Hawks guard hit a three over Anthony Edwards to give Serbia a 47-32 lead. Bogdanovic then mimicked Carmelo Anthony’s “three to the dome” celebration and began trash talking the former US Olympian, who happened to be sitting courtside.
Nahhh this is crazy disrespectful 😭 pic.twitter.com/yTlXxvURPN
— Pull up shoot (@NElGHT_) August 8, 2024
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) August 8, 2024
Even LeBron James took exception to Bogdanovic taunting his 2003 NBA Draft classmate.
LeBron was NOT happy after that Bogdanovic 3 😳 pic.twitter.com/yC2SHwn4Bq
— BricksCenter (@BricksCenter) August 8, 2024
From that point on, Team USA outscored Serbia 63-44 to pull off a 95-91 come-from-behind win. Bogdanovic’s trash talk became a huge talking point on social media during and after the game.
The tide started to turn when Bogdanovic was yapping at Melo for whatever reason and pissed LeBron off. https://t.co/NuOVDsHPME
— Daniel Starkand (@DStarkand) August 8, 2024
I’m still dying at Bron activating when Bogdanović started talking to melo
— kyle (@knicks_tape99) August 8, 2024
Everyone after Bogdanović did the 3 to the dome to Melo. pic.twitter.com/QooTEmrjzJ
— 6 Seasons and a Moving Screen (@NBAGreendale) August 8, 2024
Bogdanovic led his team in scoring with 20 points on 8/18 shooting. Reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic was right behind him with 17 points and 11 assists for Serbia.
But despite throwing their best punch at the Americans, Team Serbia came just short of a historic upset.
