The flag-bearers of the sport!

BEIJING (The Perimeter View) - Can five individuals stand out in a crowd of more than 10,000! Well, if you happen to respond names like Yao Ming, Manu Ginobili, Dirk Nowitzki, Sarunas Jasikevicius or Andrey Kirilenko, you could.

Basketball fans world over need no introduction to these names but these are the men who stood out as 10,500 athletes representing 205 countries streamed into the Bird’s Nest, standing tall not only for carrying their National flags at the Olympics Opening Ceremony but more for representing the growing acknowledgement of basketball in the world.

China, of course, have had a tradition of appointing basketballers to carry their flag at this Ceremony, in fact in all of the seven games preceding Beijing. Wang Libin carried the flag in 1984 Los Angeles, followed by Song Tao in Seoul 1988, Song Li in Barcelona 1992 and Liu Yudong in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. Yao, thus emulates Liu in bagging the back-to-back honour. If he goes a step further in bagging a maiden medal for China in basketball is a hope more than a billion people would surely pray for.

For starters, let’s try and understand the import of the flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony.

National Olympic Committees traditionally choose flag bearers of their contingents mainly on two criteria – a strong medal prospect for their country from that sport or a major influence the particular individual has had on the entire nation.

Now, how much or how well Yao, Ginobili, Nowitzki, Jasikevicius and Kirilenko lead China, Argentina, Germany, Lithuania and Russia to the podium at Beijing, to prove the first factor, will be known only moments before the Closing Ceremony. But by ‘leading-in’ at the Opening Ceremony these five men have already proven the second factor rather well.

Of course, each of these individuals have shown immense faith in their own abilities and, more often than not, fought adversities to pursue their passion – Basketball. This instance of giving them the charge to lead their contingents shows the faith their nations have reposed in them and basketball.

To me, it doesn’t really matter how many points they score for their team at the Games. They indeed have already scored more than a point for the sport. More power to their shooting arms!

So long…

S Mageshwaran