Mike Tirico made a mistake, and quickly rectified it.
The NBC announcer offered a fast apology on social media after misidentifying Martinique’s flag as Palestine’s during the gold medal ceremony for men’s basketball in Paris.
France’s Mathias Lessort, who was born in Martinique — a French territory — had the island’s flag draped around his shoulders while accepting silver after losing the final to Team USA.
“You saw with Lessort, one of the backup centers, the Palestine flag draped over his shoulders,” Tirico said on NBC. “We are certainly conscious of any displays regarding the Middle East conflict from athletes involved in these games.”
While the two flags have similar white, green and black color schemes, Tirico mixed them up — and given the obvious sensitivity at play over the Middle East, apologized just minutes later.
“Just acknowledging, as soon as possible, my error for misidentifying the Martinique flag as the flag of Palestine during the medal ceremony for Men’s Basketball today,” Tirico wrote on X. “They are similar but obviously distinctly different which is quite important for all involved.
“I apologize for the error and will correct on-air during our primetime show tonight.”
The fast apology did seem to rectify what could have become a messy situation, as most of the response to Tirico’s apology was lauding him for owning the error as opposed to criticizing the mistake itself.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
Team USA beat France, 98-87, in a memorable gold medal match, with Steph Curry hitting four 3-pointers in the game’s last 2:43 to seal the victory for the Americans.
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