‘Don’t make this a thing’: Elmo cautiously pledges allegiance to Team USA after NBA Finals beheading

When the NBA Finals tipped off, Sesame Street’s Elmo tried to play both sides.

After that strategy was met with a surprisingly violent reaction, the famous Muppet finally decided it was time to pledge an allegiance.

Using his signature third-person vernacular while sporting a Team USA kit, Elmo voiced his support with the caution of someone who had clearly learned a hard lesson.

“Just to be clear, Elmo wants Team USA to win, okay?” Elmo said in a video. “But Elmo loves everybody... Just to be clear. Don’t make this a thing. Thank you. Elmo loves you, and Elmo loves you, and Elmo loves you, and Team USA, and everybody who’s playing.”

Elmo was hilariously on edge in the video—but after the month he’s had, it’s hard to blame him for treading lightly.

Ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, Elmo’s account posted on X: “Elmo hopes both teams have fun!” followed by four basketball emojis.

The harmless message was immediately met with backlash from fans on both sides.

When Elmo tried to lean into the joke, things only escalated.

A well-adjusted adult would probably write it off as playful commentary on the spectacle, give it no further thought and move on with their evening.

After all, why should a children’s television character be expected to pick a side in a professional basketball series? Who could possibly take such an innocuous post personally?

When the Knicks closed out the Spurs in five games to secure their first championship in more than 50 years, we got our answer.

Within hours of the final buzzer in Game 5, the citizens of New York City murdered Elmo.

A crowd of celebrating Knicks fans was seen carrying the severed head of an Elmo doll mounted on a spear. The doll’s eyes were X-ed out, while a sign reading “TRAITOR” hung beneath it.

A second sign simply read: “Let’s Go Knicks.”

The footage spread faster than Elmo’s original post and instantly became one of the strangest viral moments of the Finals.

In the aftermath, Elmo’s X account largely avoided sports altogether, sticking mostly to posts about Sesame Street.

That’s what made the latest Team USA endorsement feel so deliberate. Whether by coincidence or design, the post seemed to acknowledge that Elmo had learned an important lesson about American sports fandom:

Neutrality is apparently not an option.

And judging by the replies, fans were more than happy to remind him what happens when you choose fun over fandom.