4-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist LeBron James was voted by his fellow Olympians to be the lads’s flag bearer for Staff USA in the course of the Paris Video games’ opening ceremony on Friday.
USA Basketball, for which James is making his fourth Olympic look, discovered the right approach to inform the Akron, Ohio, native of the particular honor.
Golden State Warriors star, longtime rival and now-Olympic teammate Stephen Curry nominated James for the distinction, then introduced to James—and the remainder of their teammates—that he had obtained it. Under you may discover video of the second from USA Basketball’s X, previously Twitter, account.
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 22, 2024
“You bought that honor, so that you get to wave the flag in Paris, my man,” Curry mentioned because the room broke out into applause and James smiled.
Moments after, an “appreciative” James spoke to reporters in regards to the honor.
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 22, 2024
“It is particular in the truth that … to get the chance to characterize your nation,” James mentioned. “And in one other vogue … I perceive how prestigious this second is and for somebody to be the flag-bearer and wave the flag for not solely us as a males’s nationwide group, however for all of the Olympians, I maintain that with the utmost honor.”
“It is positively one thing that my household and my group and my mates, it is one thing that can reside on ceaselessly. Tremendous appreciative and tremendous humbled by it.”
James, third on the U.S. males’s nationwide group’s all-time scoring listing, has gained three medals in his Olympics profession. He took house a bronze in 2004 at Athens and a pair of gold medals in 2008 at Beijing and 2012 at London. He’s the primary males’s basketball participant to hold the flag for Staff USA.
The ladies’s flag bearer for Staff USA will likely be introduced on Tuesday.
