With Love, From China

- Team USA is on a steamroller course so far, handing China and Angola their butts on a plate. With a side of cheese fries. Thanks to lack of cable, I'm not getting to see very much. Wah.

- Germany's doing okay, one-and-one so far. Oh well, nobody really expected them to medal, though it would be nice if they could make it out of the prelims.

- Jason Kidd . . . I'm not really sure what to make of him. The stat line I saw for the first game had him at 0 points and 0 assists, and I don't think that's accurate. I saw some truly delicious half-court passes in the second quarter, but no thanks to crappy reception I don't know if he was the passer or not.

- The next game I'm going to get to see is USA v. Spain on Sunday. USA v. Germany's only on the USA network. I have to remind myself that Spain's the defending world champion and it's not really fair to whine, "But I have to watch Pau Gasol when I could be watching Dirk?!?" 'Weenie Man Away!' as opposed to '1000% Man Beast'?

Save it for the medal round, Beej.

- One thing I really like is that the players on Team USA are being encouraged to mix with the other athletes. Kobe Bryant was Beatlemaniac-calibur mobbed when he went to one of the women's games, and some of the others have been seen at the swim meets and suchlike. No harm in knowing that you're good, but arrogance is like salt -- too much and you ruin the food and have heart troubles.

- Speaking of -- I'll keep it brief -- Michael Phelps ought to spend a few days in a tank getting filmed and scanned into a motion-capture program. If there are really merpeople in the deep sea, they move like that. Seriously, he swims like a seal.

- I'm not really a gymnastics fan, but I should start paying attention to the men's competitions. How the fuck did he do that? Honest to God, I was looking for the wires and the bluesceen. Nobody outside of a special-effects shop should be able to fly like that.

- Meanwhile, MavsLand is quiet. 4AM at the Thrifty Acres quiet. Is the offseason over yet?!?
-BJ