Hailey Van Lith Claims Refs ‘Wanted The U.S. To Lose’ In 3x3 Basketball
The U.S. women's 3x3 basketball team won the bronze medal in the Paris Summer Olympics. But if you ask Hailey Van Lith, the team got hosed.
Team USA suffered a shocking 18-16 loss to Spain in overtime during the semifinals Monday. Van Lith — USA's captain — logged eight points during the match, but it wasn't quite enough to lead her team to the final. The Americans beat Canada in the bronze medal match, 16-13.
After the loss to Spain, though, Van Lith threw the officials under the bus.
"This was 1000% BS," Van Lith said. "Those refs wanted the U.S. to lose. They were flopping left and right. They are not that good. Great job, ladies, we know who should have won."
Hailey Van Lith claims the referees would not let Team USA win.
(Photo by Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
That's a bold claim, but it's not entirely unwarranted.
On Monday's episode of ESPN's The Pat McAfee Show, NBA insider Brian Windhorst claimed there is, indeed, a bias against the U.S. 3x3 teams.
"FIBA doesn’t really want the USA to do good at three-on-three basketball. They really want that to be for countries that can’t field 5-on-5 teams," Windhorst said.
"So they do all these things, like they have all these different layers and layers of things you have to do to qualify. I don’t just mean the team. I’m talking about no, like, Kyrie [Irving] can’t just show up and play. The only way you can play is if you play in like 15 qualifying events. It’s not 15, I’m just coming up with that number."
He then added that 3×3 was something Caitlin Clark could have done since she wasn’t named to the USA women’s basketball team for the Olympics. But "there was like 15 hoops that she would have had to jump through. Because FIBA doesn’t care about ratings. They just care about, like, growing the game elsewhere outside the U.S. So it’s not their priority."
Since women's 5x5 basketball was added to the Olympic Games in 1976, Team USA has taken home nine gold medals, one silver and one bronze in 12 appearances. The men's team has 16 gold, one silver and two bronze in 20 appearances.
Total domination. No wonder they hate us.
Editor's Note: Since publication, OutKick.com has been contacted by reps from Hailey Van Lith and USA Basketball to dispute that Van Lith said this. We have reached out to Marca to verify quotes and have not heard back. We asked USA Basketball if Van Lith denies she said these quotes. USA Basketball said "(Dearica) Hamby is the only player who did media after the semifinal game" but did not say whether Van Lith denied saying the quotes.