. men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim
Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim is serving as an assistant coach on the men's U.S. Olympic basketball team that will compete in Beijing beginning Aug. 10. He is filing a series of reports for The Post-Standard as the team prepares for the Games.
Shanghai, China -- I've already reported that the people over here are going out of their way to make sure there are no hassles for us. And I'm going to give you another example that you might not believe:
When we drove to our hotel from the airport after arriving here from Beijing, the Shanghai officials blocked off the side streets so we could have a clear route on the highway and in the city. It was a good 30- to-40-minute ride, and we had the road all to ourselves. And this is in a town with 15 to 20 million people living in it.
I mean, there was no traffic. None. They held off all the cars and trucks and buses for as far as the eye could see until we passed by. All that traffic must have been sitting there, at each street along the way, for 10 minutes or who knows how long. But they sat there . . . for us.
Then, the city officials did the same thing when we went from the hotel to the arena, which was another 30 to 40 minutes, for Sunday's game with Russia. They told us it would have been a two-hour drive, at least, if they didn't do that.
It was mind-boggling. I mean, there are a lot of people in this town, and to be able to just get out there and drive without stopping was amazing. Can you imagine if they tried to do something like that in New York City?
Here's another example of how we're being treated:
We're staying at the
Ritz-Carlton - which, by the way, is another pretty nice hotel -- and they have a "food room" for us there. They put out five or six different things to eat, which is impressive enough. But there are, probably, 15 people working in that room. Fifteen people to serve 20 of us. Again, it's mind-boggling.
But basketball is such a big thing over here, and they know all about us and they want to make sure we don't have any hassles. They're very knowledgeable about basketball. It's huge here. Really, really huge.
We just heard that the
ticket for that the U.S.A.-vs.-China game, which will open the Olympics next weekend, is the toughest sports ticket in the history of China . . . period. It's the single-hardest ticket to get for a sports event in China . . . ever. I don't know what that means in price, but it's going to be a lot.
As for the game with the Russians, we won 89-68, which was good. But the best part was that we really played well on defense.
Now, make no mistake about this: Russia is a very good team. They run the Princeton offense and they are very, very patient. The Russian coach, Dave Blatt, played at Princeton between 1977-81, and he was pretty good for Pete Carril. He's coached all over Europe and now he coaches the Russians, and he's doing a great job.
And he's got people who know what they're doing. Andrei Kirilenko, the guy for the Utah Jazz, is a good player, a really good player. He scored 18 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had four assists against us.
And their point guard,
J.R. Holden, is a kid who played at Bucknell in the mid-to-late '90s. He's a good player, too. He went for 17 points and seven rebounds against us. He's one of the highest-paid players in Russia. He's been over there for about 10 years. From what I understand, Putin - Vladimir Putin, himself - made him a Russian citizen. I guess they needed a point guard.
As for Carmelo (Anthony), he played a great game with 17 points and seven rebounds. It was a really good, solid, all-around effort for him. It was, probably, his best game for us. And that's saying a lot.
We're off today. It's our first day off since we landed in China. So, we're probably going to go out and try to see some of Shanghai. I'll let you know what we find
Team USA exhibition games to be broadcast live 
Carmelo Anthony and Team USA play their first game on July 25 against Team Canada. 
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