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BEIJING—Yao Ming hit a rare three-pointer Sunday to open
the most watched basketball game in recorded
history—East or West—and the earth moved.
China
shook with a basketball orgasm.
Really,
that’s the only way to put it.
After
Chinese favorite Du Li had melted down in the first
event of the Beijing Olympics—the 10-meter women’s air
rifle—Czech gold medalist Katerina Emmons announced she
was giving Du her champion’s bouquet. Within the bouquet
were a few thorns of caution to the host country.
“The
Chinese media put too much pressure on her,” Emmons
said. “They were around her every day in training. I
can’t ever imagine being in her shoes.” Katerina,
surnamed Kurkova in 2004, approached and consoled
American shooter Matt Emmons after he blew the gold
medal in Athens by firing at the wrong target. She ended
up marrying Emmons in 2007, and Katerina has emerged not
only as a face of compassion early in these Games, but
as a voice of reason.
KOBE BRYANT and Yao Ming
both reach for a rebound during the first quarter of
their basketball game in Beijing, Sunday, which the USA
won handily, 101-70. -- AP
Forget
Michael Phelps. Forget Yao. Heck, forget A-Rod. Liu
Xiang, who figures to be the only Chinese athlete to win
a track-and-field gold medal, has more pressure on him
than any other athlete in the world.
You know
how beaten coaches in American sports occasionally will
fish for perspective by saying, “One billion Chinese
don’t care.” Well, 1.3 billion Chinese care
passionately, if not unreasonably, if Liu wins the
110-meter hurdles. And some of his countrymen aren’t far
behind in the expectations department.
Yet,
here was the damnedest thing about what one
international journalist called “the mother of all
games” in posing a question to Chris Bosh following the
Americans’ 101-70 rout of China at the Beijing Olympic
Basketball Gymnasium.
A
billion Chinese were clearly passionate, borderline
insane, about this opening-round game, but they were
crazy in a giddy Hannah Montana concert way, not a
cutthroat Yankee Stadium way.
On the
cover of its Olympic special section on Sunday, China
Daily, the national English language newspaper, ran a
huge picture Sunday of Kobe Bryant and Yao screaming
into each other’s face. The paper called it a clash of
the titans.
“It’s
more than a game,” Chinese Basketball Association chief
Li Yuanwei said.
“It’s
history,” said Kobe, who is clearly relishing his
international superstardom.
And it
was more than a game.
It was
the clash of American basketball style and China’s
insatiable desire to eat up all the substance.
This
wasn’t pingpong diplomacy. This is slam-dunk
salesmanship.
And
China is buying in record numbers. President Bush was on
hand. So was his dad. Top Chinese leaders were among the
18,000 fans, too. Yet, the leaders weren’t the story.
With Chinese tuning in from Shanghai to Tibet, the
worldwide audience reached a billion.
“No one
has ever been at a game like this,” Team USA coach Mike
Krzyzewski said.
“Unless
people turned off their TV sets before the game starts,
this was supposed to be the most viewed game ever. It
was an honor. I thought our players treated it as such
with the effort we showed.” The fellow who called it the
mother of all games never saw Wilt and Russell go at it.
He probably never saw Bird and Magic. He might not even
have seen much of Michael Jordan. But there’s no denying
China is the mother lode of David Stern’s next gold
mine. There are more Chinese basketball fans than there
are American citizens.
Pingpong
may be the national sport, but basketball is the
national craze. At the Opening Ceremonies, the stadium
gasped when Dirk, Manu, Kobe, each National Basketball
Association star entered. The Chinese government has
mandated basketball courts for each town in the country.
And
that’s why China coach Jonas Kazlauskas said,
“Psychologically, it was very difficult for us to play
this game.” When pressed, Kazlauskas explained, “In
China, you cannot see European leagues or other teams.
China shows lots of NBA games. You can see everything.
Those guys are heroes for some of our players.”
Despite
starting the game 1-for-15 on threes, their heroes,
especially LeBron James and Dwyane Wade (team-high 19
points), didn’t disappoint. After a three by Sun Yue
tied the score at 29, Team USA blew the game open with
enough eye-catching dunks to fill a full hour on ESPN.
After the debacle in Athens, the US has a long way to go
before it earns the title of the Redeem Team, and a few
of the international journalists didn’t hesitate to use
words like “circus” and “show off” in questioning
Krzyzewski about, oh, 25 dunks on 38 baskets.
“There
was no showing off,” coach K said. “We took it to the
basket hard because they have a 7-6 guy there trying to
stop you. If you don’t go in hard, you’re not going to
score. Maybe it’s our language difference. Does hard
mean show off?” No, the fellow meant show off.
An even
funnier global question was in the offing.
“What
did you do to get all the players to kill their
superego? Did it have to do with Duke or West Point?”
“We have
an expression in our country that when you’re a really
good team you play for the name on the front of the
jersey and not the name on the back,” Krzyzewski
answered. “Our guys are all playing for the name on the
front. I haven’t had to destroy or kill anything.”
The
Chinese fans were not nearly so cynical. They shrieked
when LeBron and Kobe dunked in warm-ups. It was a little
bit like a UConn women’s crowd from the mid-1990s. They
cheered politely for everybody and, despite the blowout,
everybody stayed until the end. And it was like an NBA
game because—surprise—provocatively dressed dancers
performed at timeouts.
Undoubtedly, they’ll grow more jaded as the years go on.
And they’ll grow more demanding in a hurry if the
Chinese don’t reach the stated goal of reaching the
final eight in this tournament.
But on
this night, well, they were downright orgasmic. |
