Slam Dunk

In a cruel twist of fate, both the China men and women's basketball teams met up with their USA counterparts in the early rounds of their preliminaries. Let me give you a quick breakdown between these 2 teams.

Team USA	Team China
Spots several star players who are currently playing for NBA & WNBA. With the likes of Kobe Byrant, Dwyane Wade & Lebron James, just to name a few.	Starring Yao Ming & Yi Jianlian

From what I see, there's no way Team China can beat USA in terms of individual skills, teamwork and physique. Furthermore, these USA players are professional players in NBA, one of the best basketball league in the world. There's no way any team can outshine them in terms of skills display and performance. However, as the saying goes "The ball is round; nothing is for certain", in fact, Team USA lost the Olympic title a few times before.

Still, what I saw during the replay matches on Channel U over the last 2 days was a fantastic display of skills and technique from the NBA players. They certainly lived up to their reputation with the "no-look" passes, "alley hoop" & slam dunks. Their attempts to up their "3-point" statistics were also paid off in the last 2 quarters for the mens' team. The USA Women's team also delivered a stellar performance leading their opponent by a margin of 20 over points right from the first quarter. In the end, it was 101-70 for the men's match and 108-63 for the women's match. Clearly, USA showed their superiority and excellence this arena.

Nonetheless, I also see a different side of the coin. Though faced with an "unfavorable draw", the China team welcomed the chance to play against the best teams in the world. Despite being up against a team much bigger than them in build & size, they showed equal resilient in their defense and offence. At one time, they even equalized the USA team with their 3-point shots. Also, the whole team didn't only centralized around Yao Ming alone for score with upcoming NBA rookie Yi Jianlian getting a fare share of the limelight. Thanks to him, the Chinese side managed to pull off some good shots and rare slam dunks. It was especially sweet to see him stealing the rebound from the defender with his powerful basket slam. And who would have thought that an Asian could actually block an African-American as he is on his way to a slam dunk. Though there is still a huge gap between them and their USA counterparts in terms of skills and teamwork, they made it up by their keen fighting spirit and a "never say die" attitude. Even till the last minute when they are trailing by 30 over points.

I may be amateurish in my match analysis but I am certainly proud of the Chinese team after watching their matches. Like many Chinese, I too hope that Team China can beat those NBA stars and ultimately clinch the Champions title. Still, being an NBA fan myself, I know that the reality of that happening in the near future is very low, with NBA accounting for most of the best players in the world. Meanwhile, it is heartening to note that NBA's talent pool is no longer dominated by Western stars. Hopefully, we'll get to see more Asian NBA stars in the future. By then, the Champion title will be up for grabs by East and West alike.

P.S. Though playing in NBA doesn't mean you are the best basketball players around. But hey, if you see the way they play in NBA matches, it'll be hard to convince you that they are not.