Why Nuggets fans shouldn’t feel conflicted about rooting for Serbia in the Olympics

We’re only a couple of days removed from Team USA’s dramatic victory over Serbia in the semifinals of the Olympic basketball tournament. After Kevin Durant and Team USA rallied to come back and beat Serbia, advancing to the Gold Medal Game in the Olympics, one would think the mood would be celebratory.

And while the team looked passionate, jubilant, and full of emotion on the court in the moments after the final buzzer, that didn’t appear to last long. Emotions were running high, and that’s understandable.

The United States was heavily favored but trailed for most of the game by double digits. They made a spirited fourth-quarter push and finally took the lead with just minutes remaining, holding on to eke out the victory in dramatic fashion.

But leave it to noted Twitter troll Kevin Durant, one of the defining players of Team USA, to jump onto social media in the immediate wake of the game. Durant seemed annoyed by the fact that Nuggets fans and Nikola Jokic fans from the United States were rooting for Serbia and giving them credit in defeat.

His expletive-laden Twitter rant included calling Nuggets fans “lames” and “cornballs” for cheering for Jokic and paying respect to Serbia. But Nuggets fans shouldn’t feel this way at all; they should confidently root for whoever they want.

To all you nuggets fans, nobody gives a fuck who yall lames believe is the best player in the league, players got major respect for Jok, we don’t worship him like yall do but most are in awe of his brilliance. Trolling you cornballs for rooting against us is apart of the game.… https://t.co/JVwxSi0eJD

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) August 9, 2024

Nuggets fans should have more loyalty to Jokic than anyone on Team USA

The Olympics are a great event, but they take place every four years and we basically get an NBA all-star team of Americans thrown together. While there’s nothing wrong with supporting the country, Nuggets fans have no reason to cheer for long-standing NBA enemies like Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, and many others.

Those players are villains in Denver and rightfully so. If fans want to turn that off every four years to support Team USA, that’s totally fine. But if they want to hang onto their NBA grudges and root for the hometown hero, the man who has brought as much sports joy to Denver as anyone in recent memory, that’s totally fine too!

This is the fun of sports; people can root for anyone they want for any reason they want. Jokic is deservedly a folk hero to Nuggets fans and many of them will root for him no matter what uniform he is wearing. That is a fair and balanced take. Cheering for him to pull off an amazing upset against a bunch of the Nuggets’ rivals is completely reasonable regardless of what country you call home.

Cheering on the Joker doesn’t make anyone lame or corny, it makes them loyal fans of the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic. The USA gives KD the freedom to speak his mind and say what he wants about Nuggets fans. But it also gives Nuggets fans the freedom to speak theirs and to root for whoever the hell they please.