ESPN might not have know it but it captured an Olympic Gold Medalist and Penn State wrestling legendโs reaction to a big-time NBA Playoff moment.
After Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic hit a game-tying three pointer in the final two minutes of Tuesdayโs Western Conference Semifinals Game 4 between the Nuggets and Thunder, plenty of people in Oklahoma Cityโs Paycom Center were shocked.
One of them was David Taylor, whose hands-on-head, jaw-dropped expression made it to ESPNโs Twitter post.
Now, itโs hard to say whether or not the account knew that it had captured Taylor. On the one hand, heโs one of the biggest names in wrestling and ESPN does carry the NCAA Championships every season.
On the other hand, it doesnโt mention Taylor in the post, so who knows.
One thing thatโs a pretty safe bet is that Taylor enjoyed the outcome of the game he attended.
Taylor, now the head coach at Oklahoma State, probably loved seeing the Thunder push their series lead to 3-1 despite Jokicโs heroics on the other side. Unfortunately for the St. Paris, Ohio, native, things didnโt go as well for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference bowed out to Indiana in five games.
When combining folkstyle and freestyle success, itโs hard to argue that Taylor isnโt the greatest in Penn State wrestling history (not counting Coach Cael Sanderson, who didnโt wrestle at Penn State).
At Penn State, Taylor won two Dan Hodge trophies (wrestlingโs Heisman). After Penn State, he won three World Championships and, most notably, an Olympic Gold Medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Now, heโs running the show at Oklahoma State, and fans want to see a PSU-OSU dual meet. Whether or not they ever will remains to be seen.
