My Big Fat Greek Blowout

At last Team USA got another crack at the Greek basketball team that beat them in 2006.  Final score USA 92, Greece 69.  And it wasn't that close.  They pressured the Greeks all game long, wouldn't let them set up their pick and roll offense, and forced 25 turnovers.  The game was over by halftime.

Next up is undefeated Spain, one of the best teams in the tourament, led by Pau Gasol.  First, I think the Spanish shouldn't pose for any more team pictures until they're safely out of the country.  The crowd will be strongly pro-USA for this game.  Second, I think Gasol is about to find out that playing against Kobe isn't nearly as much fun as playing with him.

So far Michael Phelps is 6-for-6 in the pool, with 6 world records, and none of the races have been close except for the 4x100 freestyle relay (thank you again, Alain Bernard.)  He even broke a world record when his goggles filled up with water, something that's happened to me many times.  Goggles filling up, that is...not breaking world records, so I know how annoying that is.  Anyway, I don't think his last two races will be close either.

A word about gymnastics.  First of all, I don't know anything about gymnastics.  There have been some rumors that the Chinese women are under age.  Someone said when they posed for pictures with their gold medals they looked like they were wearing manhole covers.  And when they held up their hands together, they looked like a charm bracelet.

Point to remember:  China has 1.3 billion people.  When you have that many people, some of them are going to be as big as Yao Ming.  And some of them are going to be as small as those gymnasts.  Being young and inexperienced isn't usually an advantage, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.  If they can do those routines at age 12 or 13, more power to them.

One last thought on gymnastics:  I'm not so sure having Bela Karolyi doing commentary is such a good idea.  I know he's trained lots of world and olympic champions, but when he gets excited, I can't understand a word he's saying.  I think he's speaking English, but not so you'd recognize it.

Finally, I was looking forward to a Federer-Nadal final.  Federer had to play James Blake in a  quarterfinal match, which should have been no problem since he's 8-0 against Blake lifetime.  Blake beat him in straight sets.  It's been that kind of year for Federer.  However in the overall picture, it was USA vs. Switzerland, so now Blake gets a shot at a bronze medal or better, and since he's been through enough grief in his life, he deserves it.