Calkins at the Olympics

OK, now I'm really done. Wrote a wrap column for the front page of Monday's paper. Wrote a short sidebar on Marc Gasol. Now I'm sitting here, in the Main Press Center, and it's hard not to feel wistful at times like these. I'll never be back here. Oh, I might be back to China, but I'll never be back to this little world I've occupied the last few weeks. Never see the volunteers all happy and cheerful to see me. Never sit at these tables, or take these buses, or tell these stories. It feels a little like Brigadoon. A magic world that appears for a bit and -- poof -- then is gone. I miss my old world, of course. I miss my three boys. But I'll miss this, in a small way, even as I wing my way back. My next column is a picks column, running Friday. It seems a million miles from here.

So there we were, in the press conference after the United States won the gold medal in men's hoops, and a reporter begins the following exchange, which would definitely not happen in the United States

Reporter: "Coach K, you have some many stars, they say that you would have a hard time . . . "

Coach K: "Who said?"

Reporter: "The Swedish media."

Coach K: "I never said that."

Reporter: "No. A newspaper in Sweden."

Lebron: "Are you from Sweden?"

Reporter: "Yes. I am a television reporter from Sweden."

Lebron: "You guys have good massages, right?"

Reporter: "Yes (pause). But not me!"

I'm already reading stuff from Grizzlies fans hoping against hope the team doesn't get Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio in next year's draft. My response: Are they nuts? I know, I know, the Grizzlies have roughly 736 point guards already. I don't care. Repeat after me: In the NBA, you ALWAYS take the best player. A big guy would clearly be a better fit (Blake Griffin, anyone?) but Rubio is a stud. He's 17 and playing (effectively) against the best players in the world. Why wouldn't you want a guy like that on your team?

Still at basketball, they're setting up for the medal ceremony and, just gotta say, what a tremendous basketball game. It was an all-star game in which everybody cared. And when it was done -- US wins, 118-107 -- Kobe, Lebron and the rest were bouncing around like little kids. If you have a chance, watch the replay on TV. It's amazing, really, what the Olympics can do.

It's 2:30 in the afternoon over here, Spain vs. US just tipped off in hoops. Lebron drops in a three to start the game. Pau responds with an old-fashioned three (if he makes this foul shot, that is) (yep, he made it) (and no, i'm not going to give you the play-by-play of the whole game).

I'm wrapping up. Have to write one final column, then a few hours of sleep before I leave for the airport. Thought I'd through a few signficiant numbers:

* 13 -- Number of sports personally witnessed.  That's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, Read the rest of this entry »

Some of you may recall that I rode a bike to the center of Beijing my first week here. I even wrote a column about it. What I didn't report was that I left the bike, unlocked, in a bike rack.

It's not like I could take the sucker home or anything. It cost $40. So I left it, in a bike rack, as a small experiment. Would the bike still be there more than a week later? How honest and honorable are the Chinese anyway?

An unlocked bike wouldn't last three minutes in Memphis. But Beijing? Well, today I went back to the bike rack to see if the bike was still there. Took a cab, got out, walked to the rack to see . . . care to guess? Anyone? Think the bike was there or not? Answer: Read the rest of this entry »

Wrote a column for Sunday about my lunch with Jim Gaylord, a Memphian who lives and works in Beijing. We talked about all sorts of stuff, much of which is included in the column. Here's an upset, though. I asked him if people knew of the Memphis Tigers because of the whole China exchange program thing. "Not really," he said. "I'm much more of a college fan but, in China, many more people know of the Grizzlies." For the record, I have not seen any Tigers gear since I've been here and have seen just one Grizzlies t-shirt. And a Spanish journalist was wearing the t-shirt, so that hardly counts.

Did I mention the cab wasn't going anywhere? It was supposed to be taking me to the Main Press Center but at some point it just stopped. I waited for about 15 minutes then paid the guy and got out. Turns out the people in front of us had actually left their cars to -- yes, indeed -- watch ping-pong. It was the gold medal match between two Chinese guys, telecast on those vast outdoors screens they have built into buildings over here. Thousands were watching. Literally thousands. They were sitting on the curb, sitting on the tops of their cars, wherever they could find a seat. I marveled at it, really. Just wonderful stuff. My cab stopped because everyone wanted to watch ping-pong.

Riding in a cab today, I heard something I have never heard before: Radio play-by-play of ping pong. Naturally, I couldn't understand a darn thing. But I know play-by-play when I hear it and this was play-by-play. There was a guy calling the action and there was a color guy. The microphones were close enough to catch the tell-tale sound of the ball. Thrilling stuff, really. And all I could think about when I was hearing it was one name: Dave Woloshin. I think Wolo would be great calling ping-pong. As good as he is at football and basketball, ping-pong may be his true calling. So think about it, Dave. Hard to beat the market size. 

If Spain should somehow beat the US in basketball (won't happen) and if the medal ceremony should therefore feature the national anthem of Spain (won't happen), Pau and Marc Gasol will not -- I repeat -- will not sing along with the national anthem. How do I know this? Because the Spanish anthem has no words. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, no words. You just sorta hum along and think about how beautiful the place is. But there are (you beginning to follow?) no words.

This was actually a topic of discussion on a media bus today. Other countries with anthems that have no official lyrics apparently include: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Hercegovina (because what rhymes with Hercegovina?), Egypt, Iraq,  Kosovo, Kuwait, North Yemen, Qatar, Somalia and Zanzibar.

Personally, the Zanibar thing seems a shame to me. I imagine the words to that anthem would rock.