Hailey Van Lith Says She Was "Super Emotional" and "So Proud" of Team USA's 3-on-3 Basketball Bronze Medal
The United States Women's 3-on-3 Basketball Team (the Olympics keeps writing it out as 3x3 but I think that looks stupid) won Bronze at this year's Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. They beat Canada 16-13 in the Bronze medal match after blowing a 4 basket lead and losing to Spain in OT of the semi-finals (Spain went on to lose to Germany in the finals, Germany won gold).
The United States Women's 5-on-5 Basketball Team has not lost a game in the Olympics since 1992. They're currently riding a win streak of 58 games. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that not many of those games have been particularly close.
But our 3-on-3 team is a different story. The United States struggled. They dropped their first 3 games before getting their shit together and finishing out group play with a 4-3 record, earning the 3-seed going into the medal round. They went on to beat China handily in the quarterfinals before running into the 3-on-3 women's basketball powerhouse that is the country of Spain.
To be fair, our 3-on-3 women's team lost star player/viral internet sensation Cameron Brink to injury before the Olympics started.
Those are the facts. Just wanted to lay those out for you. Following the United States win over Canada to secure the Bronze, USA guard Hailey Van Lith had this to say.
NY Post - “Winning a medal for your country just makes you super proud,” Val Lith said, per NBC 5 DFW. “Even after the game, I got super emotional. There just aren’t enough words. You just feel so proud. You’re just so thankful for your family and friends and everyone who cheered and supported you. If they will have me again at the next [Olympics], I’ll be back.”
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There's an obvious hardo take here. We're the United States of America. There is no excuse for us to achieve anything less than a gold medal in the sport of basketball. We invented the sport (technically it was Canada but like… that's basically us). So to be overcome with emotion, and to feel "so proud" of finishing 3rd in a sport in which we have ALL of the best of the players in the world… that's not great. Nowhere other than the Olympics do we celebrate anything less than 1st place. At least in team sports. Maybe in some individual sports. But in team sports, it's all or nothing. Nobody keeps track of who the 2nd and 3rd best teams in the NBA (or WNBA) are every year. Just because it's "The Olympics", that means even if you underachieve, you get to beat your chest and claim victory for a 3rd place finish because it comes with a shiny prize?
But that's kind of a douchey take to have right? Is there really any need to dunk on a girl who's proud that she made it to point in life where she was chosen to represent the United States of America in the Olympics and brought home with a medal? Who am I to tell someone they're not allowed to be proud of something. That seems kind of unnecessary. But if I'm being honest with myself… that's exactly how I feel.
Realistically, that's a pretty tough quote. Getting 3rd place as an American in any sort of basketball competition, whether your a man, woman, or some combination of both, is an underachievement. I'd go as far as saying it's kind of embarrassing. At least give us a, "Look, we're super disappointed to not win the gold. We'll be back next Olympics to redeem ourselves". Something like that. I just can't take a "We're so proud to bring home a bronze medal in basketball back to the United States when our actual basketball team hasn't lost a game to another country in over 3 decades" seriously.
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It's not all our team's fault. The sport of 3-on-3 basketball is beyond stupid. For some reason the Olympics added a sport that nobody actually plays competitively, where the people who would be the best at it aren't going to compete. So you just have countries rolling out a weird mixture of whoever's available to play. And the game of 3-on-3 basketball is so short. It basically just comes down to who gets hot first and can hit a few three pointers out of the gate. It's also surprisingly not-at-all entertaining to watch. It truly shouldn't exist. The fact that anybody gets to claim an Olympic gold medal, which should be an extremely prestigious achievement, for what's basically a drill basketball players do in practice, or something people play in the park when they can't get a full crew of 10 together. The whole thing is fucking dumb.
I'm sorry, but not all medals are created equal. And a bronze medal for the United States in 3-on-3 basketball might be #1 on my power rankings for worst medal in all of the Olympics. If you can come up with something that tops it, I'd love to hear it.
Also this does go to show you how much better winning a bronze medal is than winning a silver. When you win a bronze you get to go out with a win. You don't get to the point of tasting gold. You feel like you won over all the other people/teams who didn't get a medal, as opposed to just barely losing to the gold medalist. A silver medal is a constant reminder that you didn't quite win. A bronze, in a weird way, lets you better see the full picture.
Sorry Hailey. Still a big fan.