NBA Olympics 1

The countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics has obviously been met with a good deal of controversy. There's been numerous calls across the world for countries to boycott the games, or at the very least for politicians to skip the opening ceremonies.

But couldn't a greater statement by made by the athletes themselves? Should they be expected to voluntarily withdraw from the Olympics out of protest of China's long history of human rights violations and involvement with Darfur and Tibet? Dirk Nowitzki doesn't want that responsibility, according to a statement he gave to the German news channel n-tv, which was translated by Ball in Europe:

"Why should athletes do, what politicans aren't able to do for years? It is wrong, to make the athletes protest now! When they elected China for the Olympic games to be held at, they should have known that two worlds would clash. They also should have known that there will be trouble, but sport itself is non-political and there are athletes that work for the Olympics for four years. There is no reason for these guys now, not to participate!"

Nowitzki's entitled to an opinion, but in my eyes he's selling athletes short at best and dodging responsibility at worst. Athletes may not be politicians, but they can still wield political influence, especially prominent athletes such as himself. Simply standing back and letting the politicians make all of the decisions without expressing a valid dissenting opinion is rarely a good idea for long. Not to be crude, but you'd think a guy from Germany would've learned that lesson in history class.

There are no videos, there are no pictures. But NBA commissioner David Stern participated in the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco this week, which is interesting for two reasons. The first, from the Sacramento Bee's Ailene Voisin:

My sources informed me - and it was later confirmed by the man himself - that Stern, dressed appropriately in shorts and sneakers, jogged his assigned two blocks on the course that had been altered hours earlier to avoid a potential conflict between protest groups. The very thought of the sweaty, roundish Commish - who tends toward preppy attire when not in a more formal suit - plodding along the streets of The City cracks me up. Had I been warned, I would have staked out a prime viewing spot.

(Weird.) The other thought that comes to mind: Two presidential candidates -- from either side of the aisle -- have either said they would or have called on President Bush to no-show the Opening Ceremonies in Beijing. (Bush has not made a decision yet.) Meanwhile, the commissioner of basketball in America is not only embracing the Games, but it participating in the highly controversial torch relay. It's probably fair to say standing against the Games is politically safe in the United States right about now; Stern has obvious interests in China beyond Team USA's production this summer, but it's still a fairly risky move.

It remains to be seen, however, how far Stern will thrust his league into the limelight/firing line. Team USA star Kobe Bryant has come out in support of aid for Darfur (China's role in Darfur is a serious chit in all these protests) -- can Kobe really be a face of the American Olympic contingent without some sort of inconsistency? We'll see.

Even though Ben Gordon grew up in New York, the fact that he was born in London makes him eligible to represent Great Britain in the Olympics. In fact, British Basketball has been recruiting him for the 2012 Games for quite some time, hoping that he'll join current teammate Luol Deng in representing his English roots. As Deng explained it last year, Gordon was putting off a decision in hopes that he might be able to represent the U.S. instead.

At least, that was the plan; sometime in the last 12 months reality apparently set in and Gordon realized that representing the U.K. will be the only chance he gets to be an Olympic athlete. From the AP:

British Basketball named Gordon and Bulls teammate Luol Deng to its 33-man squad Tuesday to play in Eurobasket qualifiers.

"He has been very positive about playing and we are going to meet with him again in Chicago within the next two weeks," British Basketball performance manager Ron Wuotila said of Gordon.

Oddly enough, Great Britain will be the thing is that Gordon already represented the U.S. once in college when he participated in the 2003 Pan-Am Games. There will be some (near) NBA-caliber talent on the roster beyond Gordon and Deng: former Maverick Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who's currently playing in Italy, and former Blazers first-round pick Joel Freeland, who's playing in Spain, are also on the list.

Yao Ming's stress fracture put roughly 1.3 billion people on edge that he might miss this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing, but he assured fans in his home country that he'll be ready with a letter published today in Chinese-language newspapers:

Yao thanked officials from the Chinese Basketball Administration, family and teammates. He promised a quick return, which his doctors have said is likely. He's expected to need four months to heal.

``The surgery was very successful and I'll start physical recovery very soon,'' he wrote. ``I'll do whatever I can to overcome the difficulty and play for China in Olympics and be in my best form. ``I'll see you in the Olympics. Thanks, everybody.''

Why is Yao so confident? As you can see in the picture*, he'll be using traditional Chinese medicine. Because, you know, those are always better than Western medicines. The Rockets are really in a tough spot. Toronto let one of their players rush back from surgery last year to represent his home country and it ended up coming back to bite them. If this was any other country but China, I have a feeling the Rockets would put their foot down and forbid Yao from risking further injury. But as my colleague Tom Ziller just noted, China is the only country that can exert more leverage than the team actually signing the paychecks.

* I'm lying, that's just a french fry. Or is it?

As noted hundreds of times in the past few weeks, the NBA's relationship with China when it comes to Yao Ming is tricky. China controls its marquee athletes like no other government; the NBA, as a consistently globalizing corporation, wants China on its 'friends' list. Of course, Yao Ming's surprise season-ending surgery on the eve of the Beijing Olympics spurred conspiracy talk. The chatter got so serious Houston GM Daryl Morey even had to address it publicly.

For the doubters (myself included), news from ESPN's J.A. Adande that Yi Jianlian might also opt for season-ending surgery should cause rethinking. Yi missed Wednesday's Bucks game with a sore ankle; he'll undergo tests today on his wrist, which has bothered him lately. Surgery's one of the options on the table; it would end his NBA season but possibly get him in shape for Beijing.

If the surgery does happen, it's still a different situation than Yao's: Houston is contending for a title, Milwaukee's got a shot at winning the lottery. Still, it'd be awful eerie to have the NBA's two Chinese stars apparently "opt out" of an NBA season to get ready for the Olympics. (By the way, Yao will be ready for the Olympics.)

No athlete has ever been more important to a host country's Olympic efforts than Yao Ming is to the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Yao isn't just the best player on the Chinese Olympic basketball team; he's the public face of an Olympic Games that China views as an opportunity to change outside perceptions of the world's most populous nation.

So the news today that Yao will miss the rest of the season with a foot injury has implications far beyond the NBA, and people are already asking how this injury will affect Yao's ability to play in the Olympics -- or whether he rushed into season-ending surgery so he'd be healthy in time for the Games. (Or maybe Yao actually wants to miss the Olympics.)

The Olympic basketball competition begins on August 9, meaning Yao has more than five months to rehabilitate the foot injury and still be able to play. With that time frame, and considering how much the Chinese government wants Yao to be on the floor for the Chinese National Team, the best guess at this point is that he will play. But there are a lot of nervous people in Beijing right now.

Yep, a Chinese NBA star will be among those carrying the Olympic torch to Beijing. No, not that one. Or that one. This one (via BallHype):

Since returning to China in 2006, former NBA player Wang Zhizhi has been living in the shadows of giant NBA center Yao Ming and star rookie Yi Jianlian. So when he was recently appointed by the IT giant Lenovo to be a torchbearer in the relay for August's Olympic Games, the 30-year-old was ecstatic.

"I do not really care where I am going to run," he beamed. "It's just a great honor to be named as one of the torchbearers."

Good for Wang, who is making his mark back in China's top league right now. He fooled around with the Mavericks and Clippers, but clearly was a sub-NBA talent with NBA size (which, obviously, gets you somewhere). His lack of attention here in the States also vindicates the supersized image Yao and Yi call their own; Wang was the first Chinese player, but he wasn't getting voted into any All-Star games.

Yesterday, we told you about the long shadow genocide could cast over the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Now, Cleveland Cavalier Ira Newble is trying to get NBA players involved in the outrage. He's collecting signatures around the league for a letter than will be presented to the Chinese government and the President of the Olympic Committee. From The Cleveland Plain Dealer:

"It's a protest to wake people up," Newble said. "China has the 2008 Olympics and that's an event that will have the attention of the world. It'll be known that many NBA players are expressing their concern about this issue. China has a large NBA fan base. This will definitely get their attention."

Newble's keeping the names under wraps for now, in part because he's still waiting to hear from several players who have decided to investigate the issue further. Whether or not he gets the multiple All-Stars he's hoping for, this is obviously a good thing. Sports has become notoriously apolitical, and this is the kind of issue American pros can stand up for without complicating their careers.

Of course, it still might not be safe enough to get uber-star and Ralph Nader nemesis LeBron James on board.