"Football stadium with grass removal system" — Fans react to Lille arena condition where LeBron James and Co. tipoff Paris Olympics opener

Basketball fans reacted to the picture of the basketball arena where LeBron James and Co. will play their first game of the Paris 2024 Olympics. James and Team USA will face Nikola Jokic and Serbia in their opening group game on Sunday. Basket News posted a picture of the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille.

The basketball arena features a water blue color, similar to Bercy Arena for gymnastics. The post on X, formerly known as Twitter, asked fans to rate the arena:

While some of the fans were impressed with the design and the color of the arena, rating it over 8, other fans were unimpressed and rated it as low as 0.

One of the fans had a mixed review of the arena and wasn't a fan of the outline.

"I love the design of it with the patterns inside the 3pt line but a little annoying with the pink outline of the court, should've gone for something higher contrast," they wrote.

Some of the fans were impressed.

"Beautiful 10/10," a fan wrote.

"We need more halls like this in Europe," another fan wrote.

Others were not so impressed.

"My eyes hurt from the court. 1," a fan wrote.

"This aint basketball court. If its that stadium in Lille its just football stadium with grass removal system," another fan wrote.

One fan had a hilarious comment about the center court.

"Centre court logos look phallic," they wrote.

In the comments section, some had no concerns about the design of the court. Instead, they had questions about refreshments.

"Do they have QR code beer ordering system like Zalgirio Arena?" a fan wrote.

LeBron James and Co. ready to face Nikola Jokic-led Serbia in Olympics opener

James and Team USA perhaps have the toughest challenge in this Olympics. While Team USA has remained an undisputed leader in the basketball category, the rising number of foreign players has challenged the USA’s dominance. James and his team will start their defense for the gold medal facing Serbia.

Although LeBron James and his team enter the game as heavy favorites, the Serbian team is still a big threat to the reigning Olympic gold medalists. Led by NBA MVP Jokic, the Serbian team has a big 3-point shooter and a scorer in Bogdan Bogdanovic. The Serbian team is known for playing without the ball, which will test the USA's defense on the highest level.

So far, both teams have faced each other four times, and USA has won three of those matchups. They have faced each other twice in the Olympics, and Team USA won both times.

LeBron will personally look to defeat Jokic's team because of his past matchup between the LA Lakers and the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets defeated the Lakers in the first round of the 2024 NBA playoffs.