At last the Olympics has started. The opening ceremony is always something to see, and the Chinese put on an amazing show. I like to watch the introductions, to see how each country is greeted. The Chinese applauded just about everyone, including the even the US and France, but not Iran.
That reminds me: they REALLY need an alphabet. For a country that invented gunpowder, the compass, and a million other things, you'd think that some time in the last two thousand years they could have figured out some system of writing that didn't depend on 50,000 little pictograms.
Anyway, due to some vagary of the Chinese written language, Japan entered the stadium right before Taiwan, or as they were forced to call themselves, Chinese Taipei. Both countries' relationship with mainland China have been...uh...problematic, shall we say? At least they didn't boo or whistle at Japan; I'm sure many in the audience would have liked to greet the Japanese with automatic weapons fire. Next came Chinese Taipei, which was not allowed to use their flag, but had to carry something that looked like a placemat from a fast food restaurant. But they received the warmest welcome of any nation, except for the home team itself. Perhaps there is still some hope for re-unification.
On to basketball. As luck would have it, the first opponent for Team USA was the host team itself. Their superstar center, Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets, had broken his foot during the NBA season, and was far from 100%, but he would have found a way to play in this game even if he were in traction. This would be the most watched basketball game in history, with an audience of more than 1 billion people.
It was a close game for one quarter, as the Chinese made one three-pointer after another, but they started getting ragged in the second quarter. The Chinese don't have any depth, and the Americans continued to throw fresh bodies at them, like Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul. It's a real luxury when you have the best point guard in the world as a backup. So it started to look like the Harlem Globe Trotters against the Washington Generals. Once Team USA got its transition game going, and the Chinese couldn't get into their set defense, it was an exhibition of one dunk after another.
By the third quarter the rout was on, but it's important to note that China is not a strong opponent. They aren't expected to win a medal, and probably won't even make it out of pool play. But Team USA played well enough to beat anyone, and the officiating was fair. They actually called Yao Ming on a blocking foul when LeBronze James drove to the basket. I expected to see some home cooking there.
Next up is Angola, but the real test won't come until the medal round. Some of the games may be close, but I still don't see anyone beating Team USA.
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