USA women's hoops coach rips 'sexist' and 'Trumpian' critics of dominant Olympics team

The USA women's basketball team is so good. They are so, so good. We probably don't talk about just how good they are as much as we should.

How good? Try to guess the last time the U.S. women lost an Olympic basketball game. Go ahead, just try to guess; answer comes after the jump.

OK: The USA women's basketball team hasn't lost a game in the Olympics since 1992.

That is so long ago. That is so, so long ago. It is one year less than a quarter century ago. It is so long ago that the side the U.S. lost to in '92 was called the "Unified Team," made up of former Soviet republics. Indeed, the Soviet Union broke up only about six months before the U.S. women's most recent Olympic loss.

This year's team is pretty much a gold-medal guarantee, too. They've already beaten the piss out of three group-play opponents. Knockout play begins Tuesday. In practice, sometimes they throw each other alley-oops that end in slam-dunks -- good luck finding many other women's hoops teams on Earth that can do that.

Anyway, moral of the story: The USA women's basketball team is #squadgoals. (Now, are they more #squadgoals or less #squadgoals than the USA women's gymnastics team? We're not sure. But both teams are most definitely #squadgoals.)

Anyway: The USA women's basketball team is coached by a fellow named Geno Auriemma. He also coaches the University of Connecticut women's team, which is similarly dominant. Nearly every year, his UConn team faces an annoying question. And every four years, when the Olympics come around, the USA women's team faces the same question.

That question goes something along the lines of: Gee golly, are these women so GOOD that they are BAD for the sport?

Meanwhile, the U.S. men's basketball team rarely loses either. Michael Phelps is celebrated for winning a medal practically every time he comes in contact with water. Yet they don't face similar questions.

The patronizing line of thought reminds Auriemma of a certain orange presidential candidate. And he's pretty over people trying to turn his teams greatness into a bad thing.

"We live in that Trumpian era where it’s okay to be sexist and degrade people that are good, just because they’re the opposite sex," Auriemma said Wednesday in Rio when asked about criticism of his team for being too good.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

"We are what we are. We’re never going to apologize for being that good," Auriemma continued. "We’re never going to apologize for setting a standard that other people aspire to achieve. We got a guy in the pool with a USA swim cap on who nobody can beat. And if he wasn’t in swimming, there would be a lot of other guys with gold medals. So, it is what it is."

Damn skippy, coach.

And if you're among the sports fans who thinks the U.S. women (or the UConn women) are so good they're actually bad for the game, we have an idea.

Find a young girl-child you know and teach her some basketball skills. Maybe she'll grow up to be a great player. Maybe other young girls will have been similarly tutored, and maybe they'll grow up to be great players as well. Then one day all those girls will grow up to be women, women who play basketball, women who play basketball well, women who play basketball well all over the world and the U.S. basketball team won't have to put up with such a diminishing line of questions every four years.

Who knows? They might even lose another Olympics game one day. Anything is possible.