Newly crowned Olympic gold medalist Kevin Durant and Draymond Green fired back at the media on Saturday for a lack of support in Tokyo following a rough start, telling the critics: “You are an American, too. Act like it.”
Team USA narrowly defeated France 87-82 in the gold medal match to earn America’s fourth consecutive gold in the event. The U.S. has long dominated the sport, winning 16 titles in 19 appearances, but Tokyo hadn’t started off the way the American’s had hoped. After losing both exhibition matches and the Olympic opener against France, the U.S. fought its way through the group stages to advance to the knockout round but doubt had set in before the U.S. set foot in Tokyo.
ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins was among the most notable critics.
“I’m not confident at all,” he said during an appearance on “The Jump” last month. “And it’s no disrespect but you look at the players they have (Durant), (Green), they play cute. In a good way, right. They get buckets. They’re not guys that are going to go down there and mix it up in the trenches.
