Martin Rogers

USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO — As dawn broke on the first full day of competition at the Olympic Games, the morning narrative was all about honest, athletic effort and the upholding of the event’s time-honored ideals.

And…of three members of Team USA basketball reportedly winding up in a high-end Copacabana brothel and winding up on the delightful pages of TMZ.

It was all an accident apparently, a giant misunderstanding, which surely makes it all OK even if it wasn’t to begin with. TMZ certainly seemed willing to give DeMar DeRozan, DeMarcus Cousins and DeAndre Jordan a get-out clause, whether they wanted one or not.

The site rather comically quoted a “source” that insisted the players left as soon as they realized it wasn’t a “male spa” as advertised. Er, while posting photos of Jordan standing against a fully stocked bar and Cousins with a woman snuggling up to him.

What Team USA is learning quickly is that it is too good for its own good. No one is talking about the impending drama of if it will win the gold medal but how easily it will do so, and even that guessing game is getting a little old.

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Story lines involving the luxury cruise liner they are staying on and late night excursions to places of questionable repute make far more entertaining fodder than how they will match up with China or Venezuela.

Clearly the players aren’t taking their opponents lightly, heaven forbid, and blowing off some steam with evening leisure time after a hard day fretting over the grueling Group A schedule that awaits could be seen as the height of professionalism. Right, guys?

Without demanding too much of an under-pressure Team USA group, it is not unreasonable to suggest that a little research could have gone a long way toward preventing an incident that while amusing if it did occur, is still moderately embarrassing for a program trying to smarten up its image.

Termas Monte Carlo by the Copacabana seafront doesn’t, in all honesty, look too much like a male spa. Jordan wasn’t getting a manicure while he stood with the bottles of liquor in the background. Cousins’ friend didn’t seem like she was about to give him a scalp massage and dab on some exfoliating cream.

Maybe the internet isn’t working on that tricked-out cruise liner in the bay, but a quick search would have revealed the true nature of the place. Perhaps, of course, the source that TMZ values so highly is wrong, and that a trip to a naughty spot in a sometimes naughty town was the whole point.

Who knows, and frankly, who cares? That very concept that finely tuned, highly paid NBA superstars might seek out entertainment that is on the, ahem, raunchier side of the spectrum, would hardly come as a shock.

And hey, maybe they just stumbled into the place on accident. Maybe they were truly horrified by what they found inside and got the heck out of there, pronto. Maybe they really did think they could get a relaxing massage and some skin treatments, all in a place that only opens at night and comes with a fully stocked bar.

Or maybe that’s just what they will tell Coach K.