We're having some ball over here

I’m ball boy for the next couple of days and that’ll be cool.

Did base while you were sleeping, am at soft now, be back at soft on Thursday morning here and then – finally -- some basket on Thursday night.

REUTERS

Terry Puhl, manager of Canada's Boys of (a very stinky, hot, humid) Summer.

But first, a few words about our Boys of (a very stinky, hot, humid) Summer and, specifically, manager Terry Puhl.

You’ve probably heard a mealy-mouthed quote or two from athletes over here talking about how it’s an honour to compete and they’ve done their best and learned a lot and love the atmosphere and they’ll go get ‘em next time.

Of course, that’s usually after they finish fifth or eighth or thirtieth or something.

Well, Puhl isn’t like that.

He’s here to win and win however he has to. He had Scott Thorman stealing second up five over China on Wednesday and is not going to worry about ruffling any feathers.

"We’re coming here with one thing in mind, to expose any team that we play. We have a lot of honour in this game but we’re here to win ball games.”

Gotta love the dude.

And then he said later that he was only going to play guys who are contributing and if someone’s nailed to the bench for the entire tournament, so be it.

"We’re here to win nine games.”

A refreshing attitude, if you ask me.

-

I’ve only caught a little bit of basketball the past couple of days – I’ll get to spend some time there on Friday over here watching USA-Greece in what could be a doozy – but have spoken to a few NBA and FIBA types who’ve seen it all.

Early quick impressions:

Croatia’s good and Roko plays a pretty big role. He didn’t get much time in their game on Tuesday against Russia because Zoran Planicic was playing so well. They go to Ukic for a steady hand and I’m told he’s having a pretty good tournament through a couple of games.

Spain? Well, there are a lot of questions about coach Aito Garcia, who’s jerking around the starting lineup. He didn’t start Pau Gasol in the first game but started him in the second; he didn’t start Jose in the second game (for Juan Carlos Navarro) after starting him in the first. Neither of moves makes much sense so the thought is Spain’s 2-0 in spite of the coach, not because of him.

(An aside to everyone who’s asked: Jose’s fingers are fine; he’s got ‘em taped so he doesn’t hurt them again but told me on Sunday he’s 100 per cent).

The Amercans? For some reason they can’t shoot to save their souls, which is going to be the thing that jumps up and bites them in the butt sometime soon.

But I will tell you this: Kobe’s all over this tournament. When I was over there on Sunday to see Spain and Greece, a spy who was down near the court said the only American player who came by the arena to scout was Kobe, who stayed for about a half before heading out.

The dude wants to win above all else.

I’ll get you hoop heads some more tomorrow when I actually catch a break from soccer, archery, softball, baseball, water polo, field hockey and whatever else I do to fill my days and get a chance to see some basketball. Looking very much forward to that.

-

They’re papering the houses here, finding volunteers with nothing to do – or finding people on the streets and telling them what to do – and outfitting them with tickets and orange shirts, sending them into the stands to cheer wildly.

Doesn’t matter which sport, doesn’t matter which country.

If there are wide expanses of empty seats – and there have been everywhere I’ve been except at the China-Canada soccer game in Tianjin – they’re filling them.

But how’d you like to be a local who actually paid money to see, say, women’s soccer between Canada and Sweden and you look over and your next door neighbour’s in an orange shirt enjoying a free night out.

Oh, and I guess that whole thing about how every ticket was sold was, um, not quite true.

What I want to know is where they have these large groups of idle volunteers ready to go watch a game at the drop of hat. They must be storing them somewhere we can’t see them.

-

Okay, maybe the bloom is off the rose.

Was at the ballpark this morning (or deep in night back home) and two of the chickens came to roost. I mean, root.

But the red one wasn’t there. It was Blue and Green.

Maybe the red thing’s dumped me for something. I’m crushed.

-

I don’t know what they were thinking with this.

It sort of appalls me because that’s not the Jose or Garbo I know. I’m sure it bothers a lot of right-thinking people and I’m sure someone in the Raptor brass will have word with Jose sometime.

It’s caused a bit of stir over here but the Spanish team hasn’t been around to do much explaining. They will be Thursday and I’m sure there’ll be more to report.

For now, here’s what Jose’s saying on his website.

-

How 1970s of them. The fans at the Canada-Sweden soccer game the other night tried to get the wave started at the Worker’s Stadium.

Didn’t work, thankfully, because about the only thing worse than the wave are thunderstix and you all know how I feel about them.

I got a sneaking suspicion it was the seat-fillers who were told to start it. If so, they gotta get better seat fillers.

-

Hey, the tank was gone when we arrived at the main press centre this morning. A couple of gun-toting soldiers were still there, though. -

You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a gaggle of grunts sitting around trying to figure out the various soccer permutations while Canada was playing Sweden in the final preliminary round game the other night.

Was the first tie-breaker goal differential? What if Canada lost and the USA lost and Korea lost? Who would Canada play and where? What if China won and Canada won? It was like we needed an abacus and a smart person or two.

Of course, The First Lady and I were the winners on figuring out what was going to happen. We got that they were going to Shanghai to play the Americans and won the race.

-

Okay, off to watch the women softballers face Netherlands. Turn it on when you're having breakfast, I think you'll like this team.

Comments

[Julianna]

Hey Doug,

I was watching part of the U.S.A v. Angola game the other day and I was kind of shocked at the attitude of some of the American players. What sticks in my mind the most is the image of LeBron James knocking a guy down (not intentionally) and then standing over top of him with this smug look on his face, staring him down.

Maybe I am reading too much into it or misinterpreted the look (and I know that the main goal is to win games), but I really didn't think it was necessary to act in that way. I doubt that Angola was a serious threat to the Americans and I just find attitude like that to be irritating and it certainly doesn't make me want to cheer them on.

I will be the first to admit that I don't watch a lot of basketball (maybe the occasional Raptors game) but is this sort of thing normal?

[Jean-Sebastien Siow]

Hi Doug. I wrote in a week back when I told you my father is of Chinese descent. My comments about the Spanish Ad incident: At first, I did not even blink and was unaffected by the picture. I travel a lot for a living and realize that a lot of countries would see this act as harmless and as Jose specified in Spanish "con carino". I do not think the intent was to harm. However, it is the responsibility of the Spanish Federation to make sure these silly acts do not get published. Clearly, the Olympics is an international celebration of HUMAN exploits intended to bring the world closer together. After much more reflection, it is wrong for any country to cause more divide by pointing out the sensitive differences between race.

[Terence Gui]

Doug, have you had the chance to try any of the varied culinary delights offered at the fabled Beijing 'Snack Street'?

Blogger's note: Not yet, but I will, trust me.

[Ellie]

Good for that baseball coach. At the Olympic level, sports should be about winning --> or at least doing your damnedest to do so. I am tired of the Canadian 'we're happy to be here' or 'the athletes are getting good experience' attitude.

So are the bleacher-fillers, for God's sake.

And yeah, the Spanish team's "Chinese" photo was a bad, bad go. Talk about images that may come to haunt you...

[Alex]

Re the Spanish National Team photo thing... the uproar to this is very telling about where we are as a society on the "race issue". While we in North America have a certain skewed vision of race relations, not everyone around the world is so hyper-sensitive.

The fact that they DIDN’T feel anything was wrong with making Chinese-eyes tells you something. Rather than assume that they're just ignorant, think that perhaps the Spanish may be MORE enlightened than we are – they recognize differences but DON’T CARE ABOUT THEM.

The Western media really need to lighten up and realize that yelling the “R” word every time someone says or does something that belies an acknowledgement that people are different, means we’re never going to get to a place where race truly doesn’t matter. It’s not about pretending everyone is the same, it’s about understanding that superficial differences don’t matter.

End lecture.

So... how's Bargs doing at the big-man's camp?

[KK]

Calderon was replaced by raul lopez in the starting lineup for spain, juan carlos navarro has not started for his team yet.
aito is not questioned in spain at all, china got in front because of sloppy play, and the defensive adjustaments by the coach in the fourth quarter allowed spain to make a comeback.

Blogger's note: He may not be questioned in Spain, but he sure is being questioned in Beijing.

[Blake Kennedy]

Frankly, I think Jose should be suspended for some small amount of games (1 or 2) and pay a fine that's donated to a Chinese cultural group and go take a sensitivity course. The team can't appear as though it's indifferent about crap like that, and he did that while an employee of the Toronto Raptors. And that reflects poorly upon the employer. The Raptors have to take action.

[Vik]

I'm a big Jose Calderon fan but I have lost a lot of respect for him because of this incident. It's one thing to be naive and not realize something you are doing is offensive. It is another thing when after you've done an act to be told that it is offensive and then simply say that people who think this way are "absolutely confused". Jose has no right to decide how others feel towards a gesture that is pretty much universally considered offensive If him and the spanish team did not intend for it to be that way (which i believe they did not) then all they have to do is apologize and understand how it may have hurt others, not defend the act and accuse the people who are hurt by it as being "confused".

[Eric Hustvedt]

Hi, Doug,
I'm enjoying your non-basketball reports.
I saw a discussion on the FIBA website earlier this week that NBA'ers won't be tested for steroids. Is this true? If so, why, and again if so, is there any buzz about it?
Eric

Blogger's note: No, I believe any athlete at the Games is subject to the same testing procedures. And there is no buzz whatsoever about it over here.

[Edward Choi]

i'm asian and i wasn't really too offended by the photograph.
However, jose needs to understand that although he never intended to insult anyone, he must also be aware of how the gesture might be interpreted by other people. Therefore, the Spanish team should have played it safe and posed for a normal picture.

[ghostface]

Jose et al are ignoramuses. How could you think anyone would interpret that in a "loving way"?! Sorry amigo but you're the one who's "confused."
C'mon, where's the apology???

[Vik]

Alex, I understand where you are coming from, and I do believe we as a society should reach the point where we can acknowledge the differences we have between each other as human beings and not be concerned or sensitive about them. In theory that would be a great accomplishment, but in a practical sense I find it unfair for a racial group to be expected to brush aside a gesture accentuating differences between them and others when that same gesture was once used openly as a derogatory and racial slur. The act itself may invoke painful memories of harrassment for many asian people here in North America. I myself am not oriental, but am a visible minority and witnessed numerous times in my elementary school the eye slant gesture beign used to poke fun at asian children. I was also poked fun at through what may now seem as harmless actions, but believe me if an entire spanish team was to carry out those gestures, and their entire federation, a newspaper and many of their countrymen were to not blink a eye, I would be very hurt and angry.

[Vikram Kapoor]

I have a question for you guys.

If tomorrow a child goes to school after seeing this photo and his favorite basketball player Jose Calderon making this gesture to represent Chinese people, and does the same to another Chinese student, while the rest of the class laughs, is that okay?

The child from the Chinese background may be hurt by it, the orginal child who did the gesture may not have had any intent for it to be derogatory, but was just simply imitiating his favorite basketball player, and the students who laughed may have just laughed becasue the child doing the impersonation looked funny as his eyes naturally were not slanted and he looked amusing altering them.

In this situation its quite easy to understand why the chinese child was hurt, just like many asians are offended by the spanish team's photo, and once again there may not have been any intent. BUT a lack of hurtful intentions does not make the action okay, and we should not expect people who are offended by the gesture to simply ignore it and toughen up.

[Jonathan]

Alex: While you are correct that pretending everyone is the same is not the answer, you are also too quick to conclude that North Americans are overly sensitive just because "everyone [else] around the world" view race relations differently.

Understanding that appreciation and tolerance is the key doesn't make the problem go away. If you don't think racism is still rampant, you only have to look to (for example) several radio broadcasts in New York/New Jersey that have gone from insulting Asians after the tsunami to declaring Asian-Americans as not truly American and anyone voting for them in a political election to be non-patriotic. The actual broadcasts themselves aren't as shocking as the support they received, and all this in two of the more diverse states.

Comparing us to Asian countries is silly because Asians are by far the majority there; they probably wouldn't recognize the gesture, having never experienced that sort of ridicule (not to mention, they have their own issues, i.e. Korean vs Japanese vs Chinese). If they did, they'd take it as a political slight against their country. Make slanted eye gestures and ching-chongy sounds to me over here and I'm not offended so much because you're insulting where my parents are from, but because I'm being made to feel out of place in the only home I've known.

Comparing us to European countries is also silly since they have their own racial issues, just maybe not the same ones as we do since their demographics are different. Saying that we make too big a deal out of our particular race issues over here just because Spain doesn't understand is the same as saying the Tamil conflict in Sri Lanka (or any other instance of racial prejudice) is no big deal. Not to us, but imagine telling that to them. The Middle East? They've definitely got their own problems. (I haven't forgotten about the Oceanic countries, which seem to have a rather similar demographic breakdown to the U.S. and Canada, but I'm not qualified to comment about them.)

Honestly, I don't like that when I try to write something about race relations, I feel awkward using the term Black to define one diaspora right after using Asian to define another. If I use Black, shouldn't Yellow be okay for describing Asians? If I want to be consistent, African isn't exactly accurate either. Race just never seemed to occur to me while growing up in Toronto (everyone was Canadian to me), and it was great.

While I'm still far from the activist type, I've come to realize that when you exclude all the bad faith claims of racial prejudice, it doesn't matter if someone could stand to be less sensitive, or if another person doesn't take offense; ultimately, if understanding and appreciation is truly our end goal, we can't dismiss someone as being too sensitive because that is the exact opposite of coming to understand different cultures and backgrounds, and only stems from not wanting to be bothered.

[anon_e_moose]

Ellie do you think calling black players monkies and throwing banana peels at them during a soccer match is enlightened?

Its unlikely that a country with only 100k chinese would be more enlightened than a country with 1 million chinese(thats not including immigrants from japan, korea, southeast asia). Tolerance through exposure. Ignorance towards race issues is a bigger problem in Spain and Europe than it is here.

The reality is, Ellie, that we are more evolved than they are in terms of race issues. We are more hyper-sensitive because minorities are a majority in Canada, We are more aware of how these groups are offended by these things. The Spanish team's response, "I didnt know it was offensive", proves their ignorance(I did not say racism) and not their enlightenment.

[Jonathan]

BTW, I don't think that the incident should continue to be such a big deal. It's evident that they weren't aware of its offensive potential, being unaccustomed to racial tensions over here (you should see the # of Chinese-Americans who go over to China and unwittingly offend the natives). It's not like a bunch of Americans/Canadians who should know better posed for the photo. Suspending Calderon or fining him would be an over-reaction, though I hope he realizes why some people may be offended and issues a simple apology, no need for anything profuse.