Good morning, or good evening (depending if you're there or here)

Pretty slow day around here. Everyone’s gearing up for Friday – and for some reason the Canadian Olympic Committee has scheduled about a billion news conferences for Thursday instead of stretching them out – so we’re a little lacking in actual, you know, sports stuff.

So we’ll wend our way through the media village, the press centre and a few sights and sounds to get us through until tomorrow, when things actually happen, like my women’s football team kicking off these infernal Games.

-

How slow was it?

Well, Perk and I are sitting in the press centre trying to figure out what to write and our attention is drawn to the TV set right by us. It’s showing – get this – classic table tennis.

How do we know it’s classic? We figured it out ‘cause the athletes were wearing old NBA-style short-shorts. That and the Atlanta ’96 banners gave it away.

Anyway, we get to watching the men’s doubles final China against China – and, as we’re wont to do, there’s perhaps some handicapping going on. I got the dudes in the purple and Perk’s got the pair in the white and let’s just say I think I owe him a Tsing Tao.

The things we do to pass the time.

-

Things you won’t see at home:

A guard, solitary, at rigid attention, guarding what looked to be no more than a footpath going nowhere at the media village. And a guy standing guarding a fire truck. Of course, I was once party to a group of grunts at the

Sydney

village that tried to free some kangaroos from their enclosure – a little move that was aborted when we found out the fence was electrified – so maybe someone might want to boost a fire truck now that I think of it.

-

Everyone seems to be in the mood to predict Canadian medals at these things. I see Sports Illustrated had us for 14, the COC won’t say but wants a top 16-finish which would have been 17 medals four years ago in Athens and the talk around my water cooler had it at about 14, maybe less.

My guess (and that’s just what it is)? Let’s say 13. And one of my teams will bring one home.

-

Let’s toss in a basketball mailbag question, okay?

Q: Hey Doug, as someone who isn't too familiar with international basketball, would you be able to educate me on the main differences between the NBA and the Euroleague as far as recruiting new talent goes? Specifically, I'm wondering if there's an Euro-equivalent to NCAA college basketball? i.e. where's the pool of talent from which they recruit/draft new players?
Thanks for keeping this blog rolling along through the summer months, and I hope you have a safe and fun trip.

Terence G, Mississauga

A: European teams operate, generally, as “clubs.” That is, they start grooming kids as young as “mini-basket” age, like six or seven and then run them up through minors and cadets and juniors and the like. That’s one of the main ways the clubs develop their talent – and they can “sell” or loan a player to another team.

And, as we’ve seen the past few weeks, teams aren’t above simply going out anywhere in the world and signing who they like.

-

There was scant little basketball news here yesterday (or I guess it’s actually today since I’m going to post this around 7 p.m. my time).

Am told Spain may practice here tomorrow but there's also a chance they'll take a day off so not sure when we'll really get down to basketball nitty-gritty.

Scanning the reports from the basketball venue and it was a very, very quiet day.

I probably need a day or two to handicap this field (the men’s tournament doesn’t start until Sunday my time, or Saturday night back home) but there’s an early feeling coursing through me that says Spain’s gotta get some serious consideration.

The Americans are getting into town Wednesday, I believe, and will have their big news conference here on Thursday afternoon my time, Thursday morning back at my home.

Hope we get a question like the one posed to, I believe it was, Karl Malone back in Barcelona

Questioner (not verbatim): “Mr. Malone, why is in your sport that some times a basket is one point, sometimes it is two and sometimes it is three?”

Malone (a tad perplexed): “That’s just the way it is, my man.”

-

Now I don’t eat a lot of Peking Duck (I guess it’s just called ‘duck’ here; after all, as Perk points out, they wouldn’t call it Chinese food, they’d just call it food, right?), and I certainly don’t have it often for lunch and I’ve never had it in a cafeteria setting but if they keep selling us food like that in the press centre as they did Tuesday, this is going to be culinary delight.

Duck, noodles, a nifty beef and onions dish was a pretty good lunch.

But a glance over to the McDonald’s kiosk sees a lineup of about 50 people clamoring for a Big Mac.

Some folks just don’t get it.

-

Hope you all get to read this. Because I can’t.

Seems the local organizers, perhaps fearing I’d have something important to say, have blocked internet access for us to our own blogs. There’s a way to beat their system, but my machine blows up every time I try to use it, so I file and hope you all enjoy it.

A little censorship. Odd, though it is.

-

I have no clue who Canadian archer Jay Lyon is but the dude’s all right.

On the flash quote computer system here – organizers send volunteers out to get snippets of news and then post ‘em on the in-house machines so we can all get at ‘em (and you thought every note was originally reported? Silly you).

Anyway, Lyonis asked about his fitness and, if the system is to believed, he says:

"I’m not much of an athlete. I eat a lot of McDonald’s. I’m probably overweight for an athlete.”

How can you not like the guy?

-

Village living? Not bad. I got the big room in the three-bedroom condo, the one with the en suite bath much to the chagrin of Starkers and Perk. And I click on the TV before calling it a night last night, flip around the dial and what do you find? The Sopranos. A language-sanitized HBO version but, still.

-

Anyway, it’s almost night here and Team Star is soon to venture out en mass to a local neighbourhood for dinner. This might be wildly entertaining.

Be back tomorrow with a full report and, I hope, some sports to talk about.

Comments

[Terence Gui]

WOW... not sure if you'll even get to read these comments but do the powers at be really think your blog is so subversive that it deserves to be censored? I would take it as a compliment of I were you. I did wonder briefly about this topic in general when I first heard that certain blogs pertaining to sensitive issues (i.e. tibet, tianamen square) were being blogged, but never did I think they would do something like this to a major publication like the Star.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the food over there, Doug. My brother has made a few trips over there on teaching assignments and from what he's told me, all manner of wonderful food can be had for what amounts to chump change in Canadian currency terms, although I'm sure in the Olympic village, the prices would be somewhat inflated.

Speaking of which, can you tell us if the Yuan is being used in the Olympic village as the currency of choice?

Blogger's note: As you'll read tomorrow morning, food is outstanding, and yes, the Yuan is the currency of choice.

[David]

Doug, can you correct the record on Giorgis Printezis? He is a member of the Greek National Team and if he isn't injured he will be at Beijing. He may not play alot, but he is the second youngest member of that team which is an accomplishment. Greece has a pretty good team.

Blogger's note: He wasn't on the original list I saw but is now so I presume he is playing.

[MK]

Duck is quite good. Lamb has too much a "raw" taste for me, but you should try it. I'm glad your dining on some Chinese cuisine. It makes the experience much more authentic.

[Ellie]

I never want to eat McDonald's at home, let alone when in another country. Blows my mind to see photos of star athletes like Mr. Bosh having a Big Mac attack.

Is concern about diet really that rampant for athletes? (And if the local cuisine isn't to taste, can't they come up with something less artery-clogging to substitute?)

Blogger's note: In the athlete's village, the 24-hour catering service offers all kinds of global cuisine.

[Jonathan]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that it's still Peking Duck (albeit in Chinese -- "bei jing tian ya" or just "tian ya", where "ya" is duck) over there. Just to set the record straight: the term refers to a special kind of duck used specifically for that dish (or set of dishes). Some people don't realize this because a lot of places skimp over here by using regular duck.