6B SPORTS
COMMENTARY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2008
Redeem Team faced more challenges than original
The Redeem Team probably does not care about comparisons. They are halfway across the world, sporting smiles the size of the large gold medals plastered upon their chests. This Redeem Team is finally enjoying standing up straight after having a large monkey on its backs for the last three years. However, back home, the comparisons cannot help but be echoed by most basketball enthusiasts.
But alter that question to ask, what feat was more impressive? And you may find a more diverse set of answers.
Is the Redeem Team better than the Dream Team? The answer is quite simple: probably not. One-fifth of the NBA's All-Time Top 50 players contributed to the outright shellacking of their hapless opponents at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
The world is getting better at basketball. This much is obvious. Teams other than the United States are stacked with NBA ability. Dirk Notizki led the German team, former number one pick Andrew
Bogut played center for the surprising Australians, and the Spanish team contained a bevy of talent, including NBA All-Star Pau Gasol. Compare that to the competition that the 1992 Dream Team faced.
Ioni "The Croatian Sensation"
Kukoc and Detlef "I don't have
a nickname, but I do have a cool name" Schrempf of Germany were two of the only notable players who represented their countries.
This time, Spain had not only certifiable NBA talent, but they're young enough to be favorites to return to the medal rounds in 2012.
The Gasol brothers are both big men with a variety of low post moves, Rudy Fernandez was draining three-pointers in Kobe Bryant's face, and Juan Carlos Navarro was making floaters look as easy as passing KU's bowling class. The Redeem Team was still able to look in the face of this upgraded competition and find a way to win at all costs.
The pressure on the United States to win this year was enough to make lesser men not want to get out of bed in the morning. The term "win or go home" has become one of the most clichéd phrases in sports, up there with "nobody believed we could do it."
The Americans were fed up with losing. We all watched as a Carlos Arroyo-led Puerto Rico squad beat us by 19 in 2004, followed by a disappointing loss to Manu Ginobili and the Argentines in the semifinals. Carlos Arroyo was a backup point guard on the Utah Jazz. Meanwhile, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson were NBA superstars. It boggled the mind.
But the Redeem Team truly was in a "win or go home" situation. Anything less than a gold medal would have meant a complete
failure. Anything less than a gold would have meant that after three years of hard work, the future of American basketball in international play would have once again gone into disarray.
The 2008 American team not only had to prove to itself that it was a different team than those in years past, but it also had to prove it to the entire country. With the weight of the United States on its shoulders, it was able to take the gold.
In 1992, opponents were awed just to play the Dream Team. In 2008, opponents knew they could win and gave everything they had every night.
In the end, the result was the same.
The Redeem Team was able to fight doubts, pressure and increased difficulty to become the world champion and that achievement trumps the Dream Team's domination.
Edited by Arthur Hur
ASSOCIATED PRESS
USA basketball players Lebron James and Deron Williams celebrate following their win over Spain in their men's gold medal basketball game at the Beijing 2008 Olympics on Sunday.
COMMENTARY
China ends Games with ceremony, prelude to 2012 Games
Celebrities highlight closing ceremony as China hands Olympic reins to London
BY DAVID CRARY ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEJIING — China completed its stint as Olympic host Sunday with a superstar-studded closing ceremony that capped a 16-day
pageant of state-of-the-art logistics and astounding athletic feats, set out for a curious world. The games did little, though, to erase concerns about the emerging superpower's approach to human rights.
Tenor Placido Domingo was on hand, joining a Chinese soprano in a lyrical duet. Soccer icon David Beckham and graying Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page were there, helping London take the reins as host-to-be of the 2012 games.
Fireworks explode over China's National Stadium, also known as the "Bird's Nest," during the closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on Sunday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yet even as the International Olympic Committee was praising itself for awarding Beijing these Olympics, the U.S. Embassy urged China to free foreign activists jailed for protesting at the games. China, the embassy suggested, should have used its moment in the global spotlight to show "greater tolerance and openness"
China nonetheless achieved its paramount goals: a dominant effort by its athletes to top the gold-medal standings for the first time and near-flawless organizing that showcased world-class venues and smiling volunteers to the largest-ever peaceful influx of foreign visitors.
As a bonus, not just one but two athletes gave arguably the greatest performances in Olympic history — Michael Phelps with his eight gold medals in swimming, Jamaica's effervescent Usain Bolt with three golds and three world records in the sprints.
Delighted on the on-field competition, the IOC insisted its much-debated selection of Beijing back in 2001 had been vindicated.
"Tonight, we come to the end of 16 glorious days which we will cherish forever," IOC President Jacques Rogge told the capacity crowd of 91,000 at the National Outdoor Stadium, and a global TV audience. "Through these games, the world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world."
The head of the Beijing organizing committee, Liu Qi, said the games were "testimony to the fact
"These were truly exceptional games," he said, before declaring them formally closed.
that the world has rested its trust in China." He called them "a grand celebration of sport, of peace and friendship."
Before and during the games, Rogge and the IOC were criticized by human rights groups for their reluctance to publicly challenge the Chinese as various controversies arose over press freedom and detention of dissidents. Athletes shied away from making political statements, and "protest zones" established in Beijing went unused as the authorities refused to issue permits for them and detained some of the applicants.
But at the atmosphere was festive at the stadium as fireworks burst from its top rim — and from locations across the vast capital city — to begin the closing ceremony. After an army band played the Chinese national anthem, swarms of gaily dressed dancers, acrobats and drummers swirled onto the
field, then made room for the athletes, strolling in casually and exuberantly from four different entrances.
Two-thirds of the way through the ceremony came the pulsating show-within-a-show by London, complete with break dancing, hip hop and ballet. From a stage formed from a red double-decker bus, Page played the classic rock hit "Whole Lotta Love" as British pop sensation Leona Lewis belted out the lyrics. Beckham, in a stylish black sweat suit, booted a soccer ball into the surrounding throng of athletes on the stadium floor.
Former Olympic runner Sebastian Coe, now chairman of the London organizing committee, was elated.
"What we have witnessed in Beijing is a truly spectacular Olympic Games," he said. "We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to build on this moment."
UNIVERSITY DANCE COMPANY
Monday, August 25th
7:00 pm
Studio 242
Robinson Center
NO SOLO MATERIAL REQUIRED
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 785-864-4264