"Witness Gold"

There will apparently be no more "LeBronze" cat calls from King James' detractors. Whoever those people might be (other then Morgan Clark)?

The so-called "Redeem Team" got it done in China today, besting Spain for the gold medal. Well done lads.

Amazingly it's the first time the U.S. has won an international basketball competition since the 2000 Olympics. The team finished an embarrassing 6th only two years after taking the 2000 gold medal. Since then they have done no better then third place.

This conquest certainly was not easy, although to be fair not a single game was in any real doubt entering the final minute of play. The days of America's best beating everyone else on the planet by 50 points are long gone however, and they're not coming back. Blowouts in medal games are strictly the domain of American women these days.

The women incidentally took down Australia yesterday, winning the gold medal game by 27 points. Ohio State's own Katie Smith was a starter and delivered a performance worthy of the Olympics. She finished the game with ZERO points, one FG attempt, one turnover and two personal fouls. Feel that Buckeye pride!

Back to the men though...

I have to say I'm not sure I've ever timed the viewing of a live sporting event better. I woke up in my hotel room this morning and turned on the idiot box having no idea whatsoever whether or not the basketball game would be on. Much to my satisfaction, there were five minutes left in the fourth quarter and USA was holding on by a slim margin.

I invested no more then 25 minutes of viewing and saw pretty much everything that needed to be seen in this game. I award myself the gold medal for Olympic men's basketball viewing in 2008.

Spain would cut the lead to four points with only two minutes remaining. Obviously their effort (while valiant) was not enough. Some of the best the NBA has to offer were put to the test by Pau Gasol and the rest of the Spaniards.

The rest of the world has caught up to the Americans very quickly and I can assure you the NBA will become more and more an international league in the future. Trust me, that's a good thing.

And finally, I very much enjoy rooting against Duke basketball. It's like rooting against erosion, or the sun coming up tomorrow. You've gotta give credit to USA men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski though. He seems to be the best coach out there to reign in the outrageous egos of D. Wade, Kobe, LeBron and make them play as a team. Nice work coach.

Here's the last Phelps dig of 2008 (maybe). The men's basketball team played seven games and won all seven. They win one medal. Swimming two lengths of the pool I'm sure is an equal feat.