A USA basketball player made a shocking exit from the Olympic Games and then took a jab at the referees. The women’s 3×3 basketball team from the United States was shocked to lose to Spain 18–16 in the semifinals on Monday in Paris.
The USA’s captain, Hailey Van Lith, scored eight points throughout the game, but she was unable to propel her team to the championship game. As a result, the USA will now have to compete for a bronze medal.
Van Lith, however, did not leave the game peacefully. She attacked the referees, claiming that they were really rooting for the US to lose.
After the game, she declared, “This was 1000% bs.” The referees supported the US losing. They were stumbling from side to side. They aren’t all that excellent. Fantastic work, ladies. We know who deserved to win.”
Now, Spain will advance to the final to compete against Germany for gold after Germany defeated Canada by one point, leaving the US team to face Canada for a bronze medal.
Read Also: Lesbian Boxer Breaks Barriers as Refugee Olympic Team’s First Medalist
Those two games are scheduled for Monday night. Van Lith discusses the challenges of 3×3 basketball.
Van Lith has already discussed how difficult it is for the US to succeed in the 3×3 version of the sport, considering the full-sided game’s obvious superiority.
“I think the public doesn’t quite get the sport yet,” she said over the weekend. It’s simply a challenging game. It’s quite coarse. For the hardy ones, only. You cannot play and be sensitive.
“We only play 10 minutes. So if you look at the first quarter of 5-on-5 games, they’re very, very close. And sometimes even the USA is down. So it’s a game of who’s hot. If our shooters aren’t hitting shots and the other team is, no matter how much better we are, we’re probably going to lose.”
