The Olympics are already on, sort of, even though the opening ceremonies in Paris don’t officially take place until Friday. The United States is already disappointing, however, in fairly predictable ways.
On Wednesday, for instance, the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team, fresh off of an embarrassing crash out of the Copa America competition with the full squad, also managed to embarrass with the under-23 squad, as well. (Men’s soccer at the Olympics is played with players under 23, although many of the players on this team have also played with the full USMNT.)
In our first appearance in men’s soccer at the Olympic Games since 2008, the U.S. fell to host nation France 3-0, according to NPR.
However, the Olympics are more about symbolism than anything else, and I don’t think anyone thought we were going to be cleaning up in soccer — which we, as a nation, consider important enough that we use a different name for it than the rest of the world because what the rest of the world calls it, football, is reserved for a much more popular sport here.
We’d better be cleaning up in basketball, however, given our national team’s history. And that’s why the biggest L for America might come on Friday, when our biggest basketball star is going to be the most prominent representative of a country he’s not especially fond of at the opening ceremonies.
On Wednesday, it was announced that LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers star and easily the world’s most famous active basketball player, would be the male flag bearer for Team USA, according to NBC News.
“To wave the flag for, not only for us as a men’s national team, but for all the Olympians, I hold that with the utmost honor,” James said. “It’s very easy [for it] to be humbling when … [it’s]something that you never dreamed about before.”
He went on to say that “being a kid from the inner city in Akron, Ohio, to being able to represent our country in a whole other country, in Paris and in France, it’s just … a loss of words, something that you never dreamed of. It’s an absolute honor.”
James added: “I hope I continue to make my community proud and continue to make my family proud.”
Should LeBron James be replaced as Olympic flag bearer?
Yeah, well, there’s a reason why it shouldn’t have been dreamt about before. Because, as part of his attempt to be a low-rent Muhammad Ali or Bill Walton in the liberal activist sweepstakes, he was one of the most prominent anthem-kneelers once Colin Kaepernick popularized the trend.
As women’s sports activist Riley Gaines noted on social media, this should have been disqualifying for him to serve as a flag-bearer.
THIS is who was chosen as the U.S. flag bearer for the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
Anyone who has ever knelt for the national anthem should be disqualified from this honor. pic.twitter.com/2zNR95f5XI
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) July 24, 2024
And, let’s keep in mind, this isn’t just someone who bent the knee once or twice. If that were the case, thanks to the pressure exerted by the NBA’s loudest voices during the George Floyd “summer of reckoning” in 2020, we would pretty much disqualify every player on the basketball team from being included in this honor. (Not that this would necessarily be a bad thing, mind you.)
The @PelicansNBA & @utahjazz kneel for the National Anthem ahead of the NBA restart. pic.twitter.com/TCFolP06HM
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) July 30, 2020
Coaches, players, and staff from the #Lakers & Clippers lock arms in unity during the national anthem. #WholeNewGame pic.twitter.com/ZZbCNYK6Ww
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) July 31, 2020
James went even further, saying in 2022 that he could no longer root for his favorite football (the real type, not the type our national team just lost to France in) team, the Dallas Cowboys, because owner Jerry Jones required the team to stand for the national anthem.
This is in addition to other dodgy positions, including his tendency to ignore the American precedent that one is innocent until proven guilty, at least if that person is identified with a cause he considers insufficiently liberal. (See: Rittenhouse, Kyle; the police officer who shot and killed a young black woman in Columbus, Ohio because, as bodycam footage showed, she was attempting to stab a female pinned against a car.)
James decided to use his social media presence to declare both these men guilty. One was found not guilty, the other wasn’t even charged.
But I digress. The anthem-kneeling should be enough. The anti-American activism is the icing on the cake.
If you think the L that America took against France in soccer was bad, just wait until the opening ceremonies on Friday.
