FIBA – Opening day extravaganza set for men’s basketball event

BEIJING (Olympics) – The Olympic men’s basketball competition will tip off on Sunday with a day of jaw-dropping games, including hosts China against Team USA and Spain versus Greece.

If the United States’ NBA superstars are under the cosh to deliver a gold medal after failing to reach the top of the podium in the last three major international tournaments (two FIBA World Championships and the 2004 Athens Games), Yao Ming and China are under even more pressure to surpass their quarter-final appearance of four years ago.

The Chinese are in Group B with the Americans, world champions Spain, African giants Angola and European juggernauts Greece and Germany.

The United States, despite LeBron James guaranteeing a gold medal, appear to have arrived in Beijing with a sense of humility that bodes well for their tournament.

“For too long, we’ve been saying it’s our game,” said USA coach Mike Krzyzewski. “It’s really the world’s game. You can’t be arrogant and win.”

Team USA Basketball supremo Jerry Colangelo added: “We’re on a mission. We not only have a goal to win the gold medal. We want people to respect us.”

Four years ago, the Americans crashed to a humiliating defeat to Puerto Rico on the opening day of the men’s tournament.

They will be hoping to avoid a similar collapse against China.

While the Chinese were not impressive at the FIBA Diamond Ball for Men in Nanjing, only national team coach Jonas Kazlauskas and his basketball icon Yao Ming know if the big center will be ready after the foot operation that brought an early end to his season with the Houston Rockets.

In Nanjing, Yao said he was at 70% and also admitted that China had to improve a lot in a short space of time to reach their aim.

“I went several months without playing and it’s hard,” Yao said to FIBA.Com. “We just have to go out and do our best.”

While Greece had to book a place in Beijing at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Spain earned a place by winning the world title two years ago in Japan.

Aito Garcia Reneses would like to think that the Far East will be a happy hunting ground again for the Spanish, who beat the Greeks in the championship game in 2006.

“The first game is very important because it marks the path and Greece have been demolishing (their opponents) at the pre-Olympic tournament,” Garcia-Reneses said. “They are a very difficult rival as they proved at the World Championship.

“They eliminated Team USA in the semi-finals in Japan and last year at the EuroBasket, they came close to preventing Spain from reaching the final.”

Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki will have an extra bounce in his step after being named as his country’s flagbearer for the Opening Ceremony on Friday.

They will not be taking Angola lightly as the Africans may have lost three games at the FIBA Diamond Ball but impressed in games against China and Australia.

Defending Olympic champions Argentina are breathing a sigh of relief that Manu Ginobili has recovered from a foot injury that nearly kept him out of the Olympics while the Lithuanians must overcome the loss of Darius Songaila in the build-up to injury. Martin Prekevicius was called into the squad as his replacement.

Both Ginobili and Lithuania’s Sarunas Jasikevicius are the flagbearers for their countries, just as Andrei Kirilenko is for European champions Russia.

The Russians face a very awkward 9am start against Iran, with the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship winners having claimed a famous scalp at the Diamond Ball.

The Iranians, behind their amazing center Hamed Ehadadi, upset Serbia and also played a wonderful game against Argentina.

Rajko Toroman knows expectations back in Iran were raised by the performance of his team in Nanjing.

Russia weren’t able to name Victor Khryapa in their final squad because of an ankle injury but the player was so instrumental in their gold-medal triumph at EuroBasket 2007 that coach David Blatt said he would wait until the very last minute to make a change if the forward recovers.

Australia and Croatia will be very familiar to each other after meeting in three friendlies before the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, although Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa will expect a much better Boomers team.

David Andersen and Matthew Nielsen were still being integrated in the squad the teams first met while big center Andrew Bogut had yet to even link up with the Aussies after his successful contract talks with the Milwaukee Bucks.

All three played at the FIBA Diamond Ball, and Australia also showed their potential with an excellent performance against the United States.

FIBA