Every Olympics needs a villain...
The point has been made by many that in the absence of the Soviet Union, East Germany, and the rest of the eastern bloc, there's a dearth of bad guys to root against during the Olympics*, leaving the competition less compelling television as a result.

(*unless you live in any country that is not the U.S.)

Luckily, though, NBC offered us up a potential villain...

So what happens if she can't conceive? Will she take a baby from the maternity ward and pretend that it's hers anyway?

I just feel sorry for Svetlana, really. But I also highly enjoyed watching the drama of her losing again. Thanks NBC!

Gymnastics, in general, was really just a lot of fun to watch over the past few weeks--but it's the one sport in the Olympics that I would never, ever, want my daughter to participate in. And I know you've all got my back. Someone sent me this last week; it's from ESPN, I think...and it sums up my feelings on the poor gymnasts:

"As for the "women's" (and I use that word loosely) gymnastics on Sunday night ... I mean, what would possess someone to direct his or her daughter toward the seedy world of competitive gymnastics? Would you ever send your kid to the Karolyi Ranch? After the ongoing Michael Jackson fiasco, isn't it every parent's duty to avoid sending their kids to a place that features someone's last name with the word "Ranch"? Besides, what's the thought process behind pushing your child to such a sport?

My daughter's a little on the small side ... maybe we should push her toward gymnastics. This way, she'll look like a hobbit for the rest of her life; she won't menstruate until she's 25 years-old; she won't be able to eat ... EVER; she'll never meet anyone other than tiny, non-menstruating gymnasts who look just like her; she'll have a decent chance of being socially dysfunctional because she spent 15 hours a day in her formative years with a pommel horse and high bars prominently involved; and as an added bonus, a frightening Romanian will become the dominant father figure in her life. Also, she'll suffer from chronic knee problems for the rest of her life. And we'll make this gamble just in case she defies million-to-one odds and wins a medal some day, which she can hawk off some day to pay her bulimia/anorexia bills as an adult. This sounds fantastic! Sign me up."

Interesting links:

A different take on movie reviews (I think I've linked to her before, but not recently)

Who's in and who's out: A popularity contest in the U.S. Congress.
- posted by DD @ 6:34 PM

 
No surprise.


In an outcome that shocked no one who saw the US finish 6th in the 2002 World Championships--held in Indiana!--the Olympic basketball team lost to Argentina today in the semifinals, elminating any chance at a gold medal. The men's basketball team had lost just once in Olympic competition before this year. This year alone, they've lost three times. So far.

For weeks, pundits across the country have attacked the team's attitude and performance (leading a few defenders to fight back), the willingness of some players to participate, but particularly the screwy selection process which left the team filled with athletes but sans shooters.

Speaking to the first criticism: Admittedly, an NBA player isn't going to approach the Olympics the same way a Michael Phelps will. Phelps has been building towards the Olympics for 8 years. Lamar Odom, maybe 8 weeks. And you have to applaud the NBA players who do take their summers off, knowing that they're putting their careers in the balance.

And to the second: I don't think the answer lies in securing the participation of Kobe, Shaq, and the rest of the first-tier NBA stars (though that team would be considered, at first, nearly unbeatable. But the current team still has, by far, the most individual talent in the Olympics. Based on that alone, a team filled with NBA superstars is no lock). First, that team would be nearly impossible to put together. It worked in 1992, with Jordan, Magic, and Bird setting the pace, but who's going to be the inspiration to the other superstars this go-around? Kobe was enough of a prima-donna that he was trying to get the Clippers to play home games by his house, an hour outside of L.A. His dream is to be the greatest ever--in the NBA. Do you think he wants to put his career at risk and be a complimentary player for a couple months in his prime? Or any of the superstars (save Duncan)?

Rather, it's the third problem--the selection process--that's both easiest rectified but requires the most strategy to fix. Despite the 2002 failings, the national committee still patterned this year after the original Dream Team: the most marketable, dominant NBA stars. Again, this might have worked with a perimeter of McGrady and Bryant, a forward tandem of Duncan and Garnett, and O'Neal down low. Still, I'm not sure what the national committee was thinking when NBA stars began cancelling, one after another. And rather than go out and try to build a team, it was almost like a college admissions process--since up-and-coming NBA star #18 won't go, we'll invite marketable young NBA star #19 in his place.

If the US is going to have a gold-medal winning basketball program again, we're not that far away; however, our future squads need more practice time and more care in assembly. So many observers have offered potential solutions, though in my mind, none have quite hit it. And, according to Wisdom of the Crowds, a book that's generated some buzz lately (and full disclosure, I've been reading), while an individual expert might not hold all of the answers, selectively picking among the responses might identify the best alternative.

Here's what I would posit for the next twelve-man roster the U.S. puts together; something not on the order of a year-round national team, but far more permanent than the team that was hastily assembled this year. And I'm pulling from a number of opinions that I've seen all over the Web. Imagine that this team would have first been assembled back in May...

3-4 "savvy veterans"

Guys near the end of their NBA career or recently retired; physically somewhat worn down but mentally tough as nails; wouldn't mind taking a $50,000 stipend to practice and play for 4-5 months a year.

Think John Stockton, Kevin Willis, Robert Horry.


6-7 "up-and-comers"

Non-NBA players who are looking for more exposure; who have international experience playing overseas; the fire in their belly that a multi-million dollar contract seems to put out. And a few shooters.

Guys like Anthony Parker, Tyus Edney, Trajan Langdon.

1-2 NBA players

There must be a handful of second-tier players who are willing to put their careers on hold and take a key role on a national team for several months. Someone like a Shane Battier or Fred Hoiberg, guys who are skilled and used to filling complimentary slots. Though these would have to be players also able to leave their non-playoff bound teams a month or two before the season ends. A Casey Jacobson, say, or Bo Outlaw.

2-3 NBA stars

The Duncans, the Garnetts--the guys who you do add last minute because they're that good.

Now tell me--would that team do any better than this year's? It certainly could do no worse.

Addition (8/28): I hate pundits who tell you what's broken but don't see the serious flaws in their own arguments. Case in point--"pick more teammates" is one of this guy's suggestions. Well, half of the team (LeBron-Boozer; Odom-Wade; Stoudemire-Marion) played together this past year. The author also writes that a guy like Kidd would've wanted to play a lot more "if he knew he was feeding Kenyon Martin for two weeks." Well guess what--Kidd and Martin were on last year's Olympic qualifying team, which won handily with far fewer sets of teammates, along with fellow Net Richard Jefferson, and both dropped out this year. Plenty of other sets of teammates--such as Rip Hamilton and Ben Wallace--were approached for this year's squad, but declined.


- posted by DD @ 3:14 PM

 
Does anyone else find Bend it Like Beckham wildly improbable?
I can live with the Indian girl playing world-class soccer...the twists and turns that get in the way...but there was one plot development too much.


Though I appear to be having doubts, shouldn't you be the one with second thoughts?

I mean, the coach could've been with Keira Knightley. Keira freaking Knightley!

Sorry...it punched a hole in the movie for me two years ago...and even more so when I saw it on TV tonight, now that Keira Knightley's a Big Star. I know they needed it to keep the story going...but the surprise introduction of, say, a Bollywood actor as romantic lead would have been less shocking.

To spend less time analyzing romantic comedy and more on pure sport...

Carmelo's presence on the Olympic team should put to rest, once and for all, that the Pistons made a mistake in taking Darko. 'Melo has gotten little PT under Larry Brown, who never plays rookies anyway and loves guys who can play D; what's to say that he gets major minutes or his presence messes up Detroit's karma? The Pistons won the title, they have almost everyone back (plus McDyess and Delfino) for next year, and to boot, a raw big man they can still develop.*

*though that is what they said about Bradley and Bowie too...so I gues the jury's still out.
- posted by DD @ 1:07 AM

 
Every so often, I get a random request from a friend to offer up a movie recommendation. What can I say--my knowledge of pop culture, while not approaching the memory warehouse of those who get paid to write about it, has always been pretty healthy. It's harder now--no Napster-esque music device, fewer hours to waste on reading Entertainment Weekly, zero conversations with college students about who would be the better NASCAR driver, Speed Racer or Jeff Gordon--but I still do OK for myself.

So Calvin, you were asking me about something to see...well, I got home early on Thursday (and has since been my wont the past week on crutches) plopped in front of the TV...and you know what was on HBO?

A movie called Brown Sugar.

It stars Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan as friends who eventually realize they want a little more than friendship--namely each other. I remember when it came out, because I was making fun of it with someone as a remake of the movie starrring Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan than had come out the year before (Love and Basketball), or the movie starring Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan that had come out the year before that (The Best Man), or the movie starring Taye Diggs and Omar Epps that also came out that year (The Wood). (Confession: When I heard the movie's title, it also reminded me of a nickname I used to call one of my friends when we played pickup basketball, until he told me to stop because it was vaguely homosexual).

So really, I wasn't expecting much. Yeah, Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan do sort of have the Bogart-Bacall thing going at this point, although I assume they're both happily married to other people. But there was something reasonably entertaining beyond them--the movie itself. The dialogue was pretty amusing, the focus on hip-hop intriguing, and the characters...not bad to look at.


For some inexplicable reason--despite the hot girl fight--I liked it.

In a desperate bid to recapture my somewhat lost film savvy, I fell asleep Thursday night watching another movie, though one that'd been on my list for a while--Before Sunrise. And while Brown Sugar entertained me in that way, that yeah, I'd sort of seen the story before, but what the hell, this was the black, hip-hop generation's twist on Harry Met Sally, Before Sunrise left me somewhat surprised from scene to scene. It just wasn't coventional. And even though it was made ten years ago, and has probably inspired similar efforts, I'm not sure that I've ever seen anything like it before. And in this case, that was a good thing.

So hey Wiznong, there are your two movie recommendations. And thanks to the alphabetical similarity, you should be able to find them on the same shelf in your ATL blockbuster.

P.S. I know I'm going to catch hell--or have already caught it--from the four to five people who regularly read this for my 40+ day absence and all I can say is tough love, son. If you thought this blog was mildly entertaining to begin with then hopefully your heart's grown fonder of it in the meantime to begin using the old "comment" feature. Or not, it doesn't really matter. Still, I really do have tons of stuff saved up that I never got around to posting, so look forward to a semi-regular schedule...at least until I get bored with this again.
- posted by DD @ 6:16 PM