Playing With Yao Ming is like Fighting A Little Girl?

As Team USA Basketball prepared for Beijing 2008 they were given a new moniker: "The Reedem Team". It is actually a pretty apt way to sum up America's belief system about the world at large (especially when it comes to basketball). You see Americans are sports rebels. Americans spurned the world's most popular game, Soccer. We even spurned its hillbilly cousin Rugby when Walter Camp had his moment of inspiration. We decided we were too good to play cricket, with the rest of Europe and Asia, and we began teaching the world that game from Cooperstown. We even invented a sport to be played when it is cold outside and you no longer need your basket to hold fresh peaches. Since World War II, as Americans have become internationalists in their political policies, we have become decidedly isolationist in our participation in sport. The three most popular sports in America, football, baseball, and basketball, were all invented in America. Sure, Americans play other games too (some well, some not so well ). But by and large, Americans only care for games that we create. Unlike American football, basketball and baseball have gained international popularity and as Americans we have absolutely no idea how to handle this. Until the recent World Baseball Classic, international baseball existed in separate microcosms that were not completely recognized by MLB. On the other hand, basketball has been accepted throughout the world for some time. For years, we Americans were happy to crush the hopes and dreams of any basketball team in the world that would play us. The only problem is: We got used to winning. The United States of America's basketball team has not won a gold medal in the Olympics for eight years. Gasp!! Suddenly what was once taken for granted has been taken from us. The US can no longer send 12 all-stars with no chemistry or gameplan to crush the hopes and dreams of the world. It has sucked. Now Americans are in a rather stange position. If the US can go to Beijing and win the gold it will hardly be a triumph. As the nick name suggests, winning the Gold would merely be a "redemption". God forbid the United States wins the silver, becoming only the second best team in the world! This brings me back to my point. The USA has stopped competing against other full grown Olympians and is currently fighting school-girls. Sure they may look like 7' Australians or dodgy Italians; but they are school girls. Its the age old School Girl Conundrum. It is an old conundrum indeed for the school yard Alpha male. In fact, it may be the only conundrum for the school yard Alpha male. You see life is pretty easy as top dog. If a boy dares anger the Alpha male, the Alpha male crushes said boy. If a girl attracts the Alpha male, the Alpha male smiles at said girl. (If he is lucky he gets to kiss her after kickball is over) However, what if a girl kicks the Alpha male in the shins? He certainly can't crush the girl, then he would be a meanie, or at best would just preserve his place as king of the jungle. On the other hand, if he tried to crush the girl and failed he would be in a worse position than he started in... And that is where the USA is. If Coach K and the boys dominate and come home with the Gold the best case scenario is preserving US dominance. We cannot triumph. We cannot overcome. We can't even simply close. There is no winning when a girl kicks you in the shins.