Hailey Van Lith Facing Backlash Over Kobe Bryant Comments After Olympic Win

On Monday afternoon, TCU Horned Frogs women's basketball star Hailey Van Lith secured her first-ever Olympic medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Van Lith, along with Los Angeles Sparks star Dearica Hamby, Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard and Cierra Burdick, won a bronze medal after beating Canada 16-13 in the women's 3x3 basketball tournament.

After securing her first Olympic medal, Van Lith spoke to the media and highlighted NBA and Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant as her team's motivator.

"I think Kobe would be proud as heck of me for not letting us lose that last game," Van Lith said on the win over Canada.

Van Lith and Team USA suffered a loss to Spain in an earlier match that would have put them in the gold medal game, but instead, they settled for bronze. She also mentioned Kobe when talking about the battle with Spain.

"It was a tough situation for us to win in, and we just didn't soak it in... that's the Kobe mentality. Go out and win the next game."

Despite Van Lith having good intentions, NBA fans were not having it and took to social media to leave their objections to her comments.

"Kobe would’ve won gold so no"

"I’m 95% certain Kobe wouldn’t be proud of bronze"

"don’t bring up Kobe after winning bronze."

"Girl, Kobe would've expected gold"

"Mamba mentality to win a Bronze?"

Van Lith will play her first season with TCU after previously playing with Angel Reese and the LSU Tigers. In 33 games with LSU last season, Van Lith averaged 11.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists. Prior to the 2023-24 season, she played three years with the Louisville Cardinals.

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