Gold medal? Checked. MVP award? Checked. Enhancing the legacy? Checked. In case you’re wondering what the list is for, that’s a list of things LeBron James and his legion of followers can take pride in. The 4-time NBA champion was the central piece of Team USA’s board work and when he was declared the Olympics MVP, the shock was minimal. But some new information has come to the surface recently, which puts a question mark on the accolade, a Stephen Curry-sized question at that.

On a recent episode of the Hoop Collective Podcast, Brian Windhorst let the cat out of the bag, which won’t please many LeBron James fans. That only means his modern-era rival on the court, Stephen Curry’s fans, will have a case to make. Is LeBron James the rightful MVP of the Olympic success? And the issue is in full swing on social media.

According to Windhorst, the MVP voting was done by “FIBA experts” and the decision to crown LeBron James the man of the tournament was made before the all-important final two games of the tournament. And those were the same two games where Steph Curry came to life, showing why he is regarded as one of the best of the generation. The procedure certainly did not please the NBA Twitter, and they made sure to make themselves loud and clear.

Fans call out MVP voting in favor of Stephen Curry

“That’s ridiculous. It makes sense though, because the real MVP was Chef Curry,” claimed an X user. The GSW ace came to life in the semifinal against Serbia and in the final against France. His 36-point explosion against Nikola Jokic’s side was a highlight-worthy performance with vintage 3-pts splashes. In the 95-91 win, Curry sank 9 shots from the deep, sparking a fourth-quarter comeback after being 13 points down going into it. On the other hand, LeBron James had a triple-double game with a 16-12-10 statline.

A second fan added, “He says this without knowing who voted and when they casted the vote. Media was trying to push Joker before the Bronze and Championship games.” If not LeBron or Steph, Nikola Jokic was certainly one of the leading candidates to bag the recently-included award. The Serbian was the catalyst for their run to the semifinal. In the 6 games he played, Jokic accumulated 18.8 points with 10.7 rebounds and 8.7 assists. To put that into perspective, LeBron averaged 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 8.5 assists, and 1.3 steals in six outings. There was a solid case for Jokic to take the award home and a major part of media discussion was surrounding it before Serbia fell in the semis.

https://twitter.com/CPenIV/status/1823908852968120353?s=19

A fan simply wrote, “rigged”, questioning FIBA’s transparency. LeBron James is the biggest name in basketball today and he essentially played his final Olympics. The drawing power of his name is hard to ignore, and it is safe to say, it surpasses that of Steph Curry. The questionable voting process that was wrapped up even before the final two games of the tournament certainly adds a layer of injustice to it.

“Ya thought Nike was going to give the MVP to a dude that is signed to Under Amour?”, a user pointed out. Nike is the primary sponsor for Team USA and the brand saw its fair share of controversies. Jaylen Brown’s snub was allegedly a result of Nike’s influence. LeBron signed with Nike in 2003 and has remained one of the top names associated with it. Curry, on the other hand, represents Under Armour and has an equity stake in the company. So Nike pulling the strings for LeBron to win the MVP is a conspiracy theory that can wage on for years to come.

“FIBA experts probably should know USA was setting it up for him to win MVP.. they should’ve went off true impact.. Steph>KD>then Bron..,” explained a fan. Apart from Curry and LeBron, Kevin Durant was a major part of Team USA’s success. Not only did he become the all-time leading scorer for Team USA, KD also came clutch in the semi-final and the gold medal game. The Slim Reaper averaged 13.8 points from 54% FG and 51.9% from the deep compared to LeBron’s 30.8% and 47.8% of Curry.

Despite the newly found controversy, LeBron and Curry achieved what they went to Paris for. On top of that, their dream pairing also gave what the fans always wanted, turning a dream into reality, rigged or not.