Turns out there's a veritable tent city a-bornin' outside the UA-Fayetteville's stadium for the big Arkansas-Alabama game. My sister-in-law just told me those suckers extend to Bud Walton, which has to set some kind of local record for third-world nation emulation spurred by a decidedly first world nation past time. http://bit.ly/ahf5xc http://bit.ly/axUaT0

The Global Hook: "Like Cameron Indoor Stadium Times Five"

URL:  http://theglobalhook.blogspot.com/2010/09/like-cameron-...

Tonight would not be a golden one for Turkey, but argentine ain't bad. Here's a photo of last night, when anything seemed possible in this cauldron of red and white partison fireworks known as Sinan Erdem Dome.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/bjh9WP

"Like Cameron Indoor Stadium Times 5"

That's how ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla described the Sinan Erdem Dome here in Istanbul.

And that was how it felt last night during one of the memorable games I've ever experienced. Fortune smiled on Turkey to allow it to escape with an 83-82 win against Serbia and head to the gold medal game against U.S.

This picture, taken about three minutes after the buzzer, is from the top of press row and captures the Turkish team in mid-embrace below.

Turkey beats Serbia 83-82 to reach world final - NBA- nbcsports.msnbc.com

URL:  http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/39121294/ns/sports-nba/

This was the most emotional game I've ever attended and/or written about

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/92emmy

At Team USA's practices, did I peer into the untarnished soul of the anti-Lebron?

Here's an interesting take by Slate's Tommy Craggs posing Kevin Durant as LeBron's antithesis.



It's easy to be drawn into this comparison.

I spoke to Durant for about 10 minutes a couple of days ago at practice and he came across as an easy-going kid. He seems to have no problems playing in a small market like OKC, and hadn't yet even walked down Istiklal Caddesi, Istanbul's main entertainment street - where he could see an image of himself on the front window of a Nike store. Hell, dude's mom has even come over to visit.



It doesn't matter to me whether he's an anti-LeBron or not. What matters to me is that he plays beautiful basketball, and he seems to be a good enough guy not to give the sport a bad name. Sure, this Anakin still has time to go Darth Vader on us, but that will be harder in OKC.



The reader reaction below is also interesting b/c in a perfect world journalists would have time to talk to a myriad sources for each piece. But that's not Slate's role. Its writers take snapshots of how American culture on the whole is reacting to a certain subject at a certain time - they don't spend time talking directly to sources. It's commentary, not reporting.



And talking to these Team USA athlete takes more time than a simple phone call.

My colleagues and I spent about 2.5-3 hours round trip sitting in a taxi going to their practices in a club team gym across the Euro side of Istanbul. From that, we had time for about 20-30 minutes of conversation. Part of that delay was due to the political rallies noted in the previous post.

Amplify’d from www.slate.com

Durant has sold himself well, or at least has given of himself so little that the very idea of his reticence could be fashioned into a cudgel against the Very Bad Thing of the day—ego run amok. More than anything, Durant offers the moralists a clean bank shot at LeBron and his cohort. He will remain useful in this role for a time, and then one day he'll go and do some Very Bad Thing and shatter all our precious illusions.

Here's an idea for Mr. Craggs: talk to the person you're writing about. Spend some time with him. Failing that, read stuff by people who have. Many of those sports journalists who are fawning over Kevin Durant and his humility are ones who have met and interviewed him. Some have even gone to his home in Oklahoma City and seen how he interacts with his neighbors and teammates. Invariably they come away from that experience talking about how great a guy he is. Read more at www.slate.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/b9tnkM

Turkish political rally; No such rally for France

The bottom two photos show just how vibrant Turkish democracy is. They were taken of a political rally held by proponents of changes to Turkey's constitution to voted on in an upcoming referendum. Hence, the signs reading "evet," which means "yes" in Turkish.

The top photos are of the first Turkish national team's first basketball game ever held at the new 15,500-person Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul. This arena is where all the coming Worlds elimination games will be held, and is considered the crown jewel of Turkish basketball.

It got pretty loud, but could get louder. I imagine the place could have fit about 1,000 more people. I got chills during the pregame, but I haven't attended these games as long as ESPN's Chris Sheridan.

He told me at the pool today that the last time he'd gotten the chills at an international basketball game was the U.S.'s victory over Spain in the gold medal game of the 2008 Olympics.

Turkey controlled the game from start to finish, winning 95-77.

Back in Istanbul again: This Time for FIBA Worlds

Here's my home for the next week - Ibis Hotel in Istanbul. As you can see from the window photo, I can just barely make out the Bosphorous Strait. Still, I can open my window up and breath some of that fresh air in - which more than makes up for the obstructed view.

This hotel's sweet, but cut off from the rest of the world by a six-lane highway in front of it, and a lake behind it. And there are no sidewalks around it to walk on.

Good for taxi business; bad for budget-conscious, ambulophilic freelancers.

Team USA's foes fielding B teams too?

Here's a nice list of the major international players missing out on the FIBA Worlds. I like how Rosen threw New Zealander Sean Marks into the bunch. Despite his NBA pedigree, I don't think the older, slower guy would help out the Kiwis that much. They already have a veteran sharpshooting big in Pero Cameron, and besides the shooting of Kirk Penney (the tournament's second-leading scorer) I've found the bouncy, scrappy play of undersized bigs Thomas Abercrombie, Mika Vukona and Casey Frank (all in the 6-6 to 6-8 range) to be the major reason why the Kiwis have advanced to the knockout rounds.

Amplify’d from msn.foxsports.com

Still, besides their awesome upside, Team USA also has several other reasons why they are likely to win the last game of the tournament. Just consider the respective absences of Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki, Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Tony Parker, Andrew Bogut, Sean Marks, Jose Calderon, Pau Gasol, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Chris Kaman, Andrei Kirilenko, Nene, Steve Nash, Rasho Nesterovic, Mehmet Okur, Mickael Pietrus, Darius Songalia, Beno Udrih, Sasha Vujacic, and Rodrigue Beaubois. In other words, if Team USA is deemed to be the NBA’s B (or even C) team, then most of the other countries still in the mix are similarly short-handed. Read more at msn.foxsports.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/bw41Cy

Izmir's Goup D Press Room, Tall Blacks really have some open hips

Above is the press room in Izmir, site of Group D at these basketball world championships. It's the cauldron that froths with the activity journalists from Spain, Lithuania, France, New Zealand and Canada every night. In the foreground, three of my Canadian reporter friends powwow.

Joseph Campbell would have a field day with this.

It's a scene from press row before New Zealand's match against Canada yesterday. The Kiwi players, known as the Tall Blacks, are performing a a traditional Haka dance.

The cheery chorus begins:

"'Tis Death

'Tis Death

'Tis Life, 'Tis Life

'Tis Death, 'Tis Death

'Tis Life, 'Tis Life

"This is the man, the fierce powerful man."

No kidding, aboriginal anthem.

The fierce powerful men chanting your words knocked Canada out of the tournament that night.

Untitled

I had fun writing this one. You would, too, if you had to sit among thousands of Lithuanian fans night after night:

Amplify’d from sports.yahoo.com

continued

At times, it seemed as if all the basketball-crazed Baltic country’s faithful made it to Halkapinar Arena for this one. They hung at least 20 flags from the rafters, and brought out about 10 more to wave during the breaks. Behind one basket, a section of the fans periodically unfurled a giant rectangular swathe of green, yellow and red-colored cloth that blocked the sight of at least 80 people.

Kleiza took a half-court pass on a fast break to dunk with 4:42 left in the quarter, giving Lithuania a 44-35 lead and sending a group of fans wearing yellow wigs and green smiley-face T-shirts to their feet. Read more at sports.yahoo.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/coFQs1