The United States men’s team begins the tournament this morning against host China, a game that figures to have a lopsided result but should feature an atmosphere that rivals a Super Bowl or any other championship match.
Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are the headline names on the gold medal favorites, but the star power this time goes well beyond them. Yao is back from a foot injury to play before his frenzied home fans, who will be joined by Bush, the first U.S. president to attend an Olympic Games on foreign soil.
“I think it’s going to be one of the most-watched games in sports history,” U.S. forward Carmelo Anthony said. “It’s going to be exciting.”
USA basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said the Americans have been told more than a billion viewers are expected, potentially making it the largest audience ever for a sporting event.
American coach Mike Krzyzew-ski has won three NCAA championships, led teams to 10 Final Fours and was an assistant on the 1992 Olympic team, but he knows he’s about to take part in something he’s never experienced before.
“How cool, how good is it that we’re going to play in a game that might be the most-viewed game in the history of sport? Come on,” Krzyzewski said. “I remember growing up, inner city of Chicago, shooting at a basket in a schoolyard hoping that one person would watch me. And now I’m going to have a chance to coach my country’s team in front of a billion people? Are you kidding?”
It probably won’t be close. A sampling of recent U.S.-China games includes scores such as 121-90 in the 2006 world championships and 119-72 in the 2000 Olympics.
This time the Chinese are home, and after some early anxiety they’ve got Yao, the Houston Rockets center who is China’s greatest athletic superstar. So don’t tell anybody here it’ll be a blowout, least of all the American players who are bracing for a fired-up opponent.
This is likely the lone game in which the Americans won’t be the crowd favorites. Most of them are wildly popular in China, where the NBA estimates 300 million people play basketball, and the U.S. team enjoyed great support in exhibition games in Macau in Shanghai.
Center Dwight Howard, one of the best-known players after his Orlando Magic played exhibition games in China last fall, now becomes the villain for a day as the guy responsible for covering Yao.
“I love the Chinese people and I love the fans here, so hopefully they won’t hate us too long,” Howard said.
Yao was hurt in February and had surgery in March to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. His absence would have been devastating to the Chinese team, and there was some immediate concern he would have to sit out because he has been injury prone in recent seasons. Instead, he worked hard to get himself back into shape to play in these games and said the Chinese goal should be a quarterfinal berth, but they need him to be at his best for any chance to survive pool play.
“When he got hurt I was more concerned with him being healthy than anything, because I know how big and how important playing in front of his country is to him,” Howard said.
With Yao and fellow NBA player Yi Jianlian up front, the Chinese have a strong frontcourt. They lack the perimeter play, though, to match Bryant, Dwyane Wade, and the rest of the U.S. guards.
“He’s not going to score 100 points, and we hope to come close to scoring 100 points,” Krzyzewski said of Yao. “I think you have to make sure that he doesn’t dominate the game.”
Krzyzewski said he expected Jason Kidd, who wasn’t feeling well and missed a workout Thursday, to be ready. Kidd is still the starter at point guard, though backups Chris Paul and Deron Williams played longer and better during the Americans’ five-game exhibition tour.
The Americans want to get off to a strong start, remembering their 92-73 loss to Puerto Rico four years ago that threw their Olympics into disarray on the day they began. Their games get much harder as they move deeper into pool play, with Greece, world champion Spain and Dirk Nowitzki-led Germany in their final three contests.
