Olympic Gold medalist posts hilarious TikTok featuring “Bronny’s dad’s friend”
Team USA’s Cole Hocker amazed the world when he pulled off one of the best upsets in the 2024 Paris Olympics, ruling the men’s 1,500-meter final. Beyond his win, Hocker has a considerable audience for his social media accounts, which he uses to deliver hilarious jokes.
He just took a jab when he took a picture with former Team USA gold medalist Dwayne Wade in Paris. The photo was merely two American prides bumping into each other, but Hocket found humor in their meeting.
“Showing Bronny’s dad’s friend my medal,” Hocket described Wade in a TikTok post (h/t Anderson Bobo on X).
Wade and LeBron James, Bronny James’ father, have been great friends. The friendship bore two NBA championships when James and Wade were teammates on the Miami Heat.
Wade has been retired for over five years after playing 16 seasons in the NBA. Meanwhile, James will be the oldest active player in the league next season at 40. He will play alongside his son in the Los Angeles Lakers, becoming the first-ever father-son duo in the NBA.
Wade and James were also on the Redeem Team, the iteration of Team USA that dominated the 2008 Beijing Olympics, following their disappointing bronze medal finish four years prior. It was the two’s first Olympic gold medals.
The former Miami Heat was an analyst during Team USA’s games in the Paris Games, which allowed Hocker to bump into him during the Games.
Meanwhile, Hocker got his first Olympic title this year after beating Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the reigning Olympic champion, and Josh Kerr, the world champion in a stunning race.
Dwayne Wade defended Bronny James from critics
Jokes like Hocker's have been all over social media since Bronny James was drafted 55th overall by the Lakers. Despite this, Bronny has believers defending him from criticism, including Dwayne Wade.
Speaking on the TODAY show, Wade defended Bronny and hoped that the younger LeBron would not listen to the criticisms and continue working on his craft.
"I think that a lot of people don't have a chance to see the work that athletes put in," Wade said. "They haven't seen Bronny James get up at 5:00 in the morning to go live his dream out and put in the work behind the scenes."
"Like I said, if you're not there with me every day, if you're not going through the moments where you gotta embrace the suck - when you not going through the moments where you don't - you wanna quit because it's so hard. If you're not in this with me, you can't - I can't listen to you comment about me. And so, hopefully Bronny has his headphones on."
Bronny has signed a multi-year guaranteed contract worth $7.9 million and has played with the Lakers in the Summer League.