Ah, the joys of travel

These are Olympic moments.

The media relations maven known only as The Czarina, crack COC photog Mike and yours truly arrive in Tianjin, grab a cab and have no freaking way of letting the guy know where we were going.

After much gesticulating, including Mike getting out of the car and pretending to kick a football and The Czarina trying to draw a soccer ball on a piece of scrap paper (and she’s no artist, as it turns out), we decided to call back to Beijing, find a Chinese-speaking member of the COC staff and let her tell the cabbie where we wanted to go.

Not sure what she said but there was lots of ‘ho, ho, ho’ from our jolly driver, who got us here in no time flat and who was astonished to get a 5 Yuan tip at the end of the journey.

Much thanks, many smiles and I have no idea what the guy said but we are now, I believe, bestest of friends.

-

Here’s one for the GO Train people. And VIA Rail, too.

A gaggle of us took the bullet train down to Tianjin from Beijing, a distance of something like 120 kilometres or such. The speedometer in our car topped out at 343 kilometres an hour, which, my friends, is travelling.

Made the journey in 32 minutes, which was far better than the two- or three-hour bus ride we could have taken.

-

I don’t know what it is about the Spanish but their top athletes don’t ever big-time anyone, it seems.

Remember Raffa Nadal the other day? Marching himself through the airport throngs with a beat grunt following the crowd?

Well, flipping through the TV dial, I come across what I like to call The Airport Arrival Channel and there’s Pau Gasol doing the same thing, pushing a cart with some of his luggage, inundated by cameras and autograph seekers and the like.

I can pretty much assure you a lot of other NBA stars – hello, USA! – won’t quite do the same thing.

-

The trip to Tianjin began at the nicest train station I’ve ever seen: Beijing South. Palm trees in the lobby, a grand piano right over there and a place that’ll sell you a cocktail for 5 Yuan. Yeah, they do do some things right over here.

-

In what might be a shocking development to some, I enjoy a good dinner and thanks to our Beijing expert B. Schiller, I’ve now had one to remember.

He and Lovely Lili The Minder set up Team Star at a local place the other night and it’s got to be in the top 10 road meals all time. Not entirely sure what we had but the fish was spectacular, the lamb outstanding and another course of duck makes me want to be a duck guy all the time.

Toss in the revelry of a table for 13 and it’s one of the good nights.

The restaurant – name – was formerly a palace, we were told, it stretched forever from the street through a hutong and then with two more rooms.

And every time I think I’ve got a questionable job, or you think you do, I’ll remind you about the guy we saw cooking the duck over an open flame in what had to be about a billion degree heat. Aside from working in, oh, maybe a dry cleaners, that has to be the ickiest job I can imagine. Duck was damn good, though. Way better than the main press centre.

But there aren’t too many nights when you can get out for a good meal at things like that, work tends to get in the way, and an evening before it all begins to get you rested is a welcome event.

-

All along, we’ve been hearing about the small city of Tianjin we were going to for this game.

Hmm, it’s like more than seven million people.

Guess small’s all relative over here.

But you gotta see this stadium. Seats 60,000, looks like it was built yesterday, is surrounded by a creek or a moat or something like that and is very, very neat.

-

Sort of Olympic-related mail:

Q: While in Beijing will you have time to hoist a few or 'get some fresh air' with the other columnists from the home paper? I can imagine that you and Rosie could have some pretty interesting conversations on a variety of topics.

Anyway, have fun and learn lots. We await your insights.

Richard Y, Kincardine

A: Hell, yeah, we hang out. I’ve had several great conversations over fresh air and cocktails with Rosie over the six Games I’ve been at now and hanging in the courtyard outside the condo with Perk to end a night with a Tsing Tao and a cigar is to live like you’ve never lived before.

Topics? Often what we did that day and what we’re doing tomorrow. But sometimes we stray and – don’t tell anyone, okay? – bust on our bosses and jobs.

-

I’m pretty sure a whole bunch of Team Star teammates are a bit jealous. The days leading up to something like an Olympics can be mind-numbingly unexciting, with access to athletes limited, no games to cover or such.

Me? I got the very first thing of the Beijing Olympics at the women’s football today. Sweet.

-

Hey, I’m going to toss this out for all your Raptor fans who are lost and reading this hoping for some news.

The NBA sked’s coming out today and all I’ve got are a couple of nuggets.

They open in Philadelphia (if it’s on The Score do you think Leo interviews Sam Dalembert?) and the only home game I know of for sure right now is New Year’s Eve against Denver.

But stay tuned, when or if I get a chance during the day, I’ll scribble a little bit here to let you know what’s up.

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.

A boy checks in from Beijing

I have no idea what time it is there, I don’t really have any idea what time it is here, as a matter of fact. But I do know Captain Byers has the filing system worked out like a champ, My Boy Starkman had Tsing Tao in the fridge of the condo unit and Perk got in no problem so the Three Mouseketeers are settled in the home.

So a fine Ni Hao to you.

Wildly uneventful trip over, a mere 13 hours in the air and a few minutes to get through the festivities at the Beijing Airport. I can report that The Bank Job’s the best contemporary movie available on Air Canada flights, Leatherheads is very, very hokey and 88 Minutes is a pretty good Al Pacino vehicle.

And if you’re taking that flight and have to sit in steerage, 18B’s the seat to have.

-

Oh, right, the Games. They start Friday, unless you’re a women’s soccer beat grunt because then you have to wend your way to Tianjin tomorrow (or maybe the day after, or maybe today, depending on where you’re reading this) and I’m hearing the best way to get there is by train.

That should be an adventure in travel.

Also heard Amber Adams, who had suffered a serious knee injury months ago and was the hardest roster decision coach Evan Pellerud had to make (or so he told us on a conference call to announce the team) is hurt again and won’t be able to play.

How much does that suck? And how impressed are you that I’ve got up-to-the-minute women’s football news?

-

So, the airport. Gorgeous. Puts Pearson to shame, in the way it’s designed and the way it operates.

No dopes running lines who don’t know how to run lines, huge luggage carousels, easy signage, the whole shooting match.

GTAA folks gotta get over here and get some pointers.

-

Speaking of the airport, one of the first familiar faces was a hoops beat grunt from Chicago who somehow finagled his way into an upgrade on the flight over and boasted for minutes how he was sitting in the same cabin on the flight as Rafael Nadal and if there’s ever a mismatch, it’s a sportswriter and Raffa.

Of course, I had to one-up my boy. He may have sat in the same luxury as Nadal on the way over, but I got to follow him out of the airport and you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a couple dozen crazed reporters and 50 or so fans trying to get interviews and autographs in a moving line.

Was all well and good until the guy who raced down the up escalator to get a picture of Nadal fell down amid the crush. I’m sure he got stepped on and trounced, I was headed for some fresh air.

-

Right, air. Well, aside from feeling like the world’s biggest thunderstorm is going to hit in about six seconds, and aside from the fact you can maybe see a kilometre, the air’s just fine, thank you very much.

-

Now, here’s some news! The Chicken’s here! Yup, your Chicken. The Chicken. Spreading her/its/his own unique brand of entertainment at the Olympic basketball tournament as part of the NBA’s globalization initiative – I’m pretty sure the Chinese basketball league has never seen anything quite like an NBA mascot – the Raptors are going to be represented by more than Bosh, Roko and Jose in the next couple of weeks.

I have no idea if I’ll get to see much of him, but I sure hope so.

-

Okay, let’s say we’re sitting around and someone says, ‘Hey, Doug, what was the first Olympics you did? Got any good stories?’

Whoo, boy, do I. Sit down, kids, for Installment No. 1 of Tales From Past Games.

Barcelona, ’92. Day 1, Boy Reporter of The People’s Wire Service, who wanted to do a little boxing and some basketball, gets assigned to do shooting ‘cause you never know when some Canadian might win some medal in some shooting discipline nobody really knows anything about.

Grumbling, ‘cause I’m missing the fights with a handful of Canuck colleagues, I ride a bus to, like, France, to watch some guy whose name I’ve long forgotten finish about 36th. Story yields a line of agate, at best, in the What Canada Did segment in the back of your section.

I amble back on some empty bus, hit the lounge to meet the Canucks only to find out that while I was watching that nameless dude finish 36th or something – and it might not have been that good – three other Canadians at the boxing had been talking to Nelson Mandela.

Yup. That Nelson Mandela. ’92 was South Africa’s return to the Olympics, Mandela had been a boxer in his youth and was out watching one of his athletes compete.

Me? Never covered shooting since.

-

Oh, look, an Olympics-related mailbag query:

Q: Hey Doug, is Giorgos Printezis playing for Greece in the Olympics? Is he playing a big role? Do we still have his rights?
Andrew R, Toronto

A: Nope, he’s not here, I presume he’s back in Greece watching, maybe cheering. So his role is non-existent and, yes, Toronto still holds his rights but, no, he won’t be at training camp. He’s at least a year, maybe more, away from even being considered

-

I’ll tell ya, this press centre is all right. Huge. Lots of space to work, banks and restaurants and bars and places to hang out. I’m sure the good folks of China will be paying for these extravagances forever but, frankly, I don’t care.

The volunteers can’t do enough to help you – I had like three guys fighting over who’d help me push a cart of bags to my room – and if things keep going like this, this is going to rival the best Games I’ve been at.

Of course, I could just be loopy, it seems like I’ve been up for more than 24 hours – wait, I have been up for more than 24 hours – and I’ve still got a women’s soccer advance to write.

That’s the fun part about being over here, deadlines. Women’s soccer game is Wednesday night here, Wednesday early morning there and the story setting it up has to be in Tuesday’s paper because by the time people read Wednesday’s paper, they will have already played.

If I can keep that all straight without my head blowing off, I’ll have had a successful games. Now, though, it’s off to find some food, perchance a cocktail and do some more writing. Be back in the ‘morrow.

Yeah, right, this is the quiet time

Supposed to be slow now, isn’t it? Then why am I still doing hours and hours of mail? It’s ‘cause you mooks never take a break, which is why I love you sooooooooo much.

Anyway, not sure how it’ll work next week, the next missive you see from me here is going to come from Beijing on Monday morning (that’s if the 14-hour plane ride goes smoothly enough) and there’ll be lots of Olympic stuff up and around.

But send the basketball and Raptor questions, it’ll keep me in touch and give a welcome break from baseball, softball, football, water polo, field hockey, taekwondo and whatever else I find myself writing about over there.

-

Q: I was thinking about this this morning and thought I would ask you:
Assume that the Huskies didn't fold and had actually continued on in the ABA/NBA - what would the impact of that have been in Toronto? Would there be more of a basketball culture? Would they be as revered (with 60 years of history) as the local hockey team? I just want your thoughts on that and the impact of the team had it continued.
Second, you've been around the Raps since day one. Looking back in retrospect, are there a few things that the Raps have done well in their history when it comes to spreading the game in Canada/Ontario/Toronto? And are there any things that you would like to see the team improve on or try that they haven't done before in their brief history?

Rob K, Brampton

A: That’s a very interesting question. There would definitely have been more of a basketball culture but hockey, even by then, was so ingrained in our collective minds, it still would have been a distant second for a very, very long time.

The Raptors have done pretty well, actually, but I would never have had training camp in Buffalo for two or three years or whatever it was, I would have moved it around the country; I would have found some way to get every game on national television every year (not sure that was workable, though) and I would have played exhibition games in one Canada city every single year.

-

Q: So if Will Solomon plays great in camp, and at the start of the season beats out Ukic for the backup role, do you think it'd be worthwhile for Ukic to be sent to the D-League to get consistent playing time? Same question for Nathan Jawai?

Justin C, Kitchener

A: No, I cannot envision a scenario that has Ukic in the D League. They need all three guards around the team at all times. Jawai? More likely but a very big longshot. He’s going to get better practicing against Bosh and O’Neal, not by playing the guard- and swingman-dominated D League.

-

Q: How is this Raptors' roster in any way prepared to handle the onset of injuries and under-performance that is sure to plague them?
You're starting five features a PG not fully accustomed to starting an 82-game season in the NBA, a Jekyll & Hyde-type SF, and a centre who has been injured more often than not in recent years.
These uncertainties would be less disconcerting if this squad was as deep as the 06-07 team, but a 13-man roster with no proven back-up to Calderon and a bench rounded out by fringe NBAers (Adams, Jawai, Solomon) hardly inspires confidence.
Am I being overly critical? Is this a "wait and see" situation?

Ben F, Toronto

A: A tad overly-critical but it’s a legitimate concern. But also remember that the end of the bench of the 2006-07 season was populated by guys like Uros Slokar, Luke Jackson, Pape Sow, Fred Jones and Darrick Martin.

-

Q: Hi Doug! Thanks for answering my mail. Although I am a big fan of the Raps and the East, I’m still convinced that the West will dominate.
My question: Not sure if this has been asked before but I'll ask anyways. Did you ever apply for Chuck Swirsky's job when he left? I think your color commentating in your Star articles will definitely sell with the Raps viewers. And we always get your insights on paper but any chance we'd hear or see you on any gig with the Raps?
Also, do you think TJ feels blindsided by the Raps because of the trade? I don’t think Raps fans should hate TJ because he was acquired to be the starting PG of this team and then when he said he wants to remain the starter, people started feeling he was selfish when in fact, that’s why he was acquired by BC anyways. I’ve been trying to find TJ interviews after the trade to see if he had ill feelings towards the Raps, but the guy hasn’t said anything bad, mark of true class.

Tobi B, Toronto

A: Thanks for the kind words but no, I did not apply for that job, nor could I do it. Play-by-play is hard.

As for TJ? I bet he knew the day after the season ended that they were going to try to trade him and I know he and his agents were kept abreast of developments leading up to the deal. That’s the way Bryan operates.

-

Q: Two quick ones for the mailbag...
1) I know this will probably be decided at camp, but looking at the roster right now, between Solomon, Jawai and Adams who's on the injured reserve?
2) When do we get to see our new alternate black-gold trimmed jerseys? Do you know if they'll be for sale soon? I'm quite excited for this as I plan to buy a Ukic.
PS I saw the Jermaine O'Neal jeresy at the NBA store in NY and let me just say that O'Neal looks great on the back of a Raps jersey!
Andrew R, Toronto

A: If everyone’s healthy, I’m guessing Jawai, who’s playing behind two all-stars and a former first overall draft pick (and the Hump, of course) starts on the inactive list.

I don’t about the jerseys (actually black with red trim, I’m told) but I’m sure when they’re for sale, the good folks at MLSEL will let you know how you can spend your money on them.

-

Q: Non-Raptors related, but thought I would share with you.  With the new search engine Cuil released, I checked out how relevant it is to the fans of your blog. I am happy let you know that you're the first one on the list for "raptors blog" compared to 12th on Google (how's that possible?!?).  In agreement to your colleage David Olive, this site does need tweeking (a lot) as both your name and his can be found, but in articles over a year old? But none the less, what's most important (your blog) is 1st.

Kevin Y, Scarborough

A: I know very little about what you’re talking about but I’ll hope it’s good.

Thanks

-

Q: Have a great trip to China, Here's a somewhat basketball related question. Last year you mentioned many times that the Pizza promotion had its limitations. What would suggest as a replacement?

Also along that line is there any changes (toning down the intro/music) you could suggest to improve the overall fan experience.
John P, Fredericton

A: Ah, the pizza question.

What they should do, if the promotion is back again and I haven’t heard that it’s not, is his:

Only if the Raptors win and hold a team to under 90 points do they give away free slices; they should have drop boxes from food banks at every exit and fans should be encouraged to drop their ticket stubs in there on their way out.

Early the next morning, or even that night, they should arrange to take those tickets to three or four food banks – some downtown, some in the ‘burbs, where they can be given out.

Not sure what else they can do to change the game ops part of the “experience” but we’ve got to get more of The Chicken. And less of that goofy game where they try to guess the over-and-under with the card games on the ribbon scoreboard. Lame, for everyone except the person taking part.

Oh, and no music when the game’s going on.