NBC’s Olympic sportscaster Mike Tirico apologized Saturday after he mistakenly said that French basketball player Mathias Lessort had wrapped himself in Palestine’s flag during the medal ceremony, following the country’s loss to the United States. Lessort instead had carried the flag of Martinique, the French territory where he was born.
“You saw with Lessort, one of the back centers, with the Palestine flag draped over his shoulders,” Tirico said on-air. “We are certainly conscious of any displays regarding the Middle East conflict from athletes involved in these games.”
Though the two flags have similar colors, they are distinctive in design.
Day or rage incoming?
In Tirico’s defense, there are plenty of similar flags to the “palestinian” one. And the reason why speaks to their violent, colonizer past.
You almost have to feel sorry for the palestinian Arabs. Despite decades of terrorism and throwing the world into chaos, people regularly still cannot correctly identify their flag.
And by the way, this story gets even worse for them:
Prior to joining his current team Panathinaikos B.C., Lessort played for the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv.
