Mike Tirico quickly took to social media to offer an apology for misidentifying the Martinique flag as the Palestinian flag during the 2024 Paris Olympics men’s basketball medal ceremony on Saturday.
Team France was accepting their silver medals following a 98-87 defeat to Team USA when the NBC cameras lingered on Mathias Lessort, who accepted his medal with a flag draped around his shoulders. As the camera panned down the roster, Tirico tried to add some context.
“You saw with Lessort, one of the backup centers, the Palestine flag draped over his shoulders. We are certainly conscious of any displays regarding the Middle East conflict from athletes involved in these games,” said Tirico.
Understandably, given the ongoing situation in Palestine and the ways that has manifested in America, that’s a touchy subject to delve into on a broadcast like this.
Making it even more uncomfortable, Lessort was actually draped in the Martinique flag, not the Palestinian one (He was born in Martinique, an overseas department of France).
The flags do resemble one another with a red triangle on the left next to green and black rectangles. However, the colors are reversed on each flag while the Palestinian flag also contains a white rectangle between the black and green.
Tirico and the NBC Sports PR team quickly moved into action and he surfaced an apology on social media within minutes.
“Just acknowledging, as soon as possible, my error for misidentifying the Martinique flag as the flag of Palestine during the medal ceremony at Men’s Basketball today,” wrote Tirico 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.”
There will probably be some who remain upset about the mistake but if you’re going to have an error like that, this is exactly how you deal with it. Apologize ASAP, own up to the error, and explain what you’ll do about it.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.