N.B - NBC's website says that the company will air more than 3,600 hours of the Summer Olympics this year, 1,000 hours more than the combined coverage for every televised Summer Olympics in U.S. history (Rome 1960 - Athens 2004, 2,562 hours).
It is "the most ambitious single media project in history."
My viewing experience, however, wasn't as grand. I was chagrined to learn that nbcolympics.com does not stream commentators (for this game, the color commentator was Doug Collins). So I watched the game in silence, pretending I was there, occasionally checking the weird text-based live commentary some random ex-coach provided.
The beginning of the game is all a basketball fan could have hoped for - the president in attendance, Yao Ming hitting a three, and the home team starting out with tough, spirited basketball. But while China was able to keep the game close through the first quarter (America did not shoot well, hitting only 2 of 16 threes through 3 quarters, and Carmelo did not score in the 1st half), a number of factors led to China's eventual 31-point demise:
1) China is not a deep team and the US is. The US kept running and at first China could handle it - they had the adrenaline of playing at home and fresh legs going for them. But over the course of the game, they fell victim to wave after wave of fast-breaking, stars and stripes-saluting greyhounds.
2. Yao Ming, China's hinge, was creaky. He had surgery in the spring and has been playing with the national team since only July 15th. He scored only half (13 points) of what he averaged 2 years ago as the leading scorer of the world championships and was not able to finish plays around the rim during the 2nd half. He wearily waved to the crowd as he exited with 4 minutes left in the game, but I expect China to bounce back as Yao's stamina improves and EVERY OTHER TEAM WON'T BE THE UNITED STATES from now on. The Red Dragon's second brightest flame, New Jersey Nets forward Yi Jianlin, was horrible: he had made only 1 of 9 shots a couple of minutes into the 4th quarter.
3. LeBron and D-Wade were spectacular. LeBron had 18 points on 8-12 shooting, buttressed by 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks. He also looked like he was ready to win the 100 meter dash. Late in the 2nd quarter, as he waited for a rebound off of a free throw attempt, he hunched down like a sprinter in the starting blocks. There was no way he was letting Yi Jianlin get the rebound.
Wade was impeccable - 7-7 FGs, 5-5 FTs. If he continues to play at his NBA Finals MVP-level of last year, the US's transition game goes from orange alert to red.
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5 comments:
From your July 29th entry - They "almost appear to be loafing when they are actually pacing themselves, the result of spending eight hours a day, six days a week playing basketball since they were 13 or 14. It is impossible to maintain high intensity for such long stretches and thus the system, which is designed to toughen up the players and almost make them basketball machines, eventually breaks down their will and teaches them that the smartest route is to rarely rise above a 75 percent energy level." -
how large of a factor was this regarding the yin and yang of the game on Sunday?
Hey, wasn't this game also possibly the most watched sporting event ever?
With reportedly over 300 million basketball fans and an emerging massive middle class (China claims to recently have surpassed the USA in number of internet users), what are the odds that the globalization of basketball will lead to the US losing the NBA to China or Europe? Or will we just develop faster planes and have a truly global league? To clarify, I don't know if we'll ever lose the ability to watch americans play solid basketball in america, but is there a real danger of the best players in the world all choosing to play in China or elsewhere where they could make more money with more fans in a smaller geographical area?
Anonymous:
I don't think lack of all-out effort was China's downfall in this specific game. Playing in Beijing, it shouldn't be a problem this summer at all. After all, some of their top players - Liu Wei, Wang, Yi, Sun Ye and Yao - have all been around US training practices. Also, their coach, Jonas Kazlauskas, is Lithuanian and implements European practice methods. The team takes time off in between games. Finally, if the players were not hyped up to play in the most important basketball game in the nation's history, they had quaalude - not blood - running through their veins.
And yes, the game was most likely the most watched ever, with an estimated 1 billion viewers.
Johnnie:
This same question is being heavily discussed right now on all the major sports news sites. One of the most prescient articles comes from Michael Rosenberg:
http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/8434922/International-icons-have-international-options
I agree with him for the most part.
I think that the price would have to be more than 50% what the megastar could make in the states and the megastar will have already had to have won a championship to sate his ego. It will happen in the next few years. Will LeBron, Kobe or somebody else be first?
Remember - There is NO SALARY CAP for European teams.
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