TOKYO — After the U.S. men’s basketball team lost to France on Sunday, 83-76, giving the Americans their first loss in the Olympics since 2004, Coach Gregg Popovich took umbrage at the idea the outcome was somehow a surprise.
He had a point, of course.
It’s “a diss to the French team [to think] we are supposed to beat them by 30,” Popovich said. “That’s a hell of a team. That’s a little bit of hubris if you think that America should just roll the ball out and win. We have to work like everybody else.