Mike Krzyzewski defended his team’s record setting performance against Nigeria on Thursday and angrily dismissed suggestions that the United States tried to humiliate the African nation in its 156-73 win.
A foreign reporter initially asked Nigeria coach Ayodele Bakare if he felt the Americans were guilty of running up the score. Bakare, though, sounded more impressed than angry by what the NBA players had accomplished. Moments later, Krzyzewski, unsolicited, addressed the topic, and called the question offensive.
“We didn’t play LeBron [James] and Kobe [Bryant] in the second half, and with Carmelo (Anthony) shooting like that, we benched him,” Krzyzewski said after Anthony scored a U.S. Olympic record of 37 points in 14 minutes and 29 seconds. “We didn’t take any fast breaks in the fourth quarter, and we played all zone. You have to take a shot every 24 seconds, and the shots we took happened to be hit.
“I take offense to this question because there’s no way in the world that our program in the United States sets out to humiliate anymore.”
Coach K then turn to Bakare and said: “Coach would think it humiliating if we didn’t play hard.”
The 83-point victory included a team record 29 3-pointers including 10 from Carmelo. The U.S. also set the all-time Olympic record for points.
“On the one side, it’s terrible to get whupped like that,” Nigeria’s Koko Archibong said. “But on the other side, it was something impressive to be a part of – impressive to witness in person.”
The performance conjured up images of the 1992 Dream Team which was never challenged when the NBA players made their Olympic debut in Barcelona. But not even Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson experienced a win so lopsided. Their largest margin of victory was 79 points against Cuba.
The U.S. faces plays Lithuania on Saturday and plays its final group game on Monday against Argentina
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