Olympics News and Info

Team USA Defeats China 101-70

Filed under: China, USA

Step 1, complete.

Team USA has to take it one game at a time in order to re-establish their dominance in Olympic basketball, and that’s what they did Sunday morning in the U.S., crushing China 101-70. Behind Dwyane Wade’s 19 points on 7-of-7 shooting, and LeBron James‘ 18 points, 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 blocks worth of stat-stuffing, the US broke the game open late, and never looked back.

Yao Ming led the Chinese squad with 13 points and 9 rebounds, but was just 3-of-9 from the field. The New Jersey Nets’ Yi Jianlian had 9 points on 4-of-13 shooting, but did have a few flashes of offensive brilliance with some powerful swooping jams. Other than that ….

Kobe Bryant gets 13, Dwight Howard gets 13? Hard to come back from that. The US shot 54 percent from the field, and led the entire way. China fought the whole way, though, with Yao Ming even coming back off the bench to try and get his team back into it after taking a fall that seemed to hurt his foot in the third. Put the whiskey down, Rockets fans, he looked fine by the end of it, and the Chinese did pull him at the end, when it became clear the U.S. wasn’t letting China anywhere near them.

Wade may be the explosive factor the U.S. needs him to turn into, he’s playing the best ball on Team USA, with Deron Williams and James right there as well. But the commitment to defense by Wade is wreaking havoc on opposing ballhandlers, and, as expected, China had no answer for the U.S. forwards.

Step two is Tuesday versus Angola, before our big fat Greek revenge game on Thursday.

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Team USA Defeats China 101-70

Filed under: China, USA

Step 1, complete.

Team USA has to take it one game at a time in order to re-establish their dominance in Olympic basketball, and that’s what they did Sunday morning, US time, crushing China 101-70. Behind Dwyane Wade’s 19 points on 7-7 shooting, and LeBron James‘ 18 points, 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 blocks stat-stuffing, the US broke the game open late, and never looked back.

Yao Ming led the Chinese squad with 13 points and 9 rebounds, but was just 3 of 9 from the field. The New Jersey Nets’ Yi Jianlian had 9 points on 4 of 13 shooting, but did have a few flashes of offensive brilliance with some powerful swooping jams. Other than that ….

Kobe Bryant gets 13, Dwight Howard gets 13? Hard to come back from that. The US shot 54% from the field, and led the entire way. China fought the whole way, though, with Yao Ming even coming back off the bench to try and get his team back into it after taking a fall that seemed to hurt his foot in the third. Put the whiskey down, Rockets fans, he looked fine by the end of it, and the Chinese did pull him at the end, when it became clear the US wasn’t letting China anywhere near them.

Wade may be the explosive factor the US needs to turn to, he’s playing the best ball on Team USA, with Deron Williams and James right there as well. But the commitment to defense by Wade is wreaking havoc on opposing ballhandlers, and as expected, China had no answer for the US forwards.

Step two is Tuesday versus Angola, before our big fat Greek revenge game on Thursday.

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The Political Defanging of Team USA

Filed under: Americas, Beijing, China, USA

On Sunday morning, ESPN ran a substantial feature on the progression of Team USA’s stated role in drawing attention to Darfur as it makes its way to China for the Olympics. Over the past year, players including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have spoken (to different degrees) about the Sudanese genocide, and the indication has been that some sort of awareness campaign might coincide with the team’s bid for gold. As the ESPN segment made clear — and you can see it below — this will not be the case.

In May, LeBron said he’s ready to speak out after learning more about China’s human rights record. In June, after USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo tells the team to keep quiet about “politics,” LeBron says he’ll be focusing on basketball. I understand the need for focus, and that the Olympic men’s basketball tournament will be a challenge itself. But … what?

Dave Zirin had a provocative piece in The Nation two summers ago (discussed at FreeDarko here) on the odd tact noted Republicans Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski took in pushing a political agenda in Team USA auditions and practices. As a part of the political push, Sen. John McCain (a benefactor of Colangelo’s contributory largess) spoke to the team.

Darfur isn’t exactly a blue-red issue. But it has received more attention from the left than the right. (Proof positive: President Bush’s goodwill tour through China this week, while other nations will boycott the Beijing opening ceremony as a statement against China’s Darfur involvement.) We don’t know exactly what Colangelo said in his talk with Team USA, or how involved Coach K became. But the odd shift in the stance of LeBron and Kobe immediately following the session raises more red flags than we’ll see over Beijing this weekend.

USA Basketball should not be in the business of keeping its players quiet. That’s not what America is about.

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