Team USA on top of the world

What a basketball game it was on Saturday night, or, technically, Sunday morning.

I plopped myself on the couch after a few hours of drinking in the East Village, scarfed down two grease-soaked pizza slices (one cheese, the other pepperoni) and settled in to watch Team USA reach the end of its road to redemption. A few thoughts from the gold medal game against Spain:

-Not to take anything away from the USA players, but Dwyane Wade was the only guy in the first quarter whom you could say, definitively, was leaving it all on the floor. Dude was ALL over the court, hitting threes, making steals and just expending an inordinate amount of energy.

-I noticed that when Kobe and LeBron, with two fouls apiece, were sitting on the bench in the first quarter, Kobe gave LeBron a "look" while the Spaniards kept the game close. It was a look, like, "Damn, this might be a tough game."

-I wasn't able to complain to myself about Doug Collins' announcing like I normally do because the referees' ridiculous inconsistency gripped my attention. First quarter was called like each offensive player had a five-foot halo around him. Second quarter was Rugby rules. Just frustrating to watch, so I can't imagine what it was like to have to play under those conditions.

-Seventeen-year-old Ricky Rubio is going to be a straight-up baller by the time he's 20. His handle is sweet, he understands spacing and body positioning and his overall intelligence has already been well-documented.

-By the time the Spaniards came within two, 91-89, deep in the fourth quarter, the intensity of the game crept to a level I'm not sure I've seen in basketball. It was akin to the final minutes of the Pats-Giants Super Bowl in February. Maybe the final minutes of the '98 Finals between the Jazz and Bulls, MJ's last game, is the only comparison in my viewing lifetime (going back to '90). I loved that NBC kept showing shots of the USA bench after scores. Carmelo was yelling and clapping like a high schooler in state playoffs, a wonderful sight for all the naysayers who claim NBAers don't care about the Olympics.

-Kobe had sort of an odd fourth quarter. He had a plethora of huge plays: a really tough runner in the lane to stretch the USA lead to 93-89; a kickout to Deron Williams for a three; a penetrate and pass to Dwight Howard in the lane for a dunk; the four-point play and subsequent hushing of the crowd which was probably the signature play of the game. But Kobe made some poor decisons. He missed two threes which where badly out of USA's offensive rhythm, not to mention his excruciatingly poor defense on Rudy Fernandez on one play, which opened up Fernandez to drive to the hoop and posterize Howard. The threes I can sort of understand, since he was trying to take over the game. The occasional lapses in judgement, though, weren't what I was expecting from a guy who's played in five NBA Finals. Still, Kobe made the biggest plays when USA needed them the most. It's why he's the best in the world.

-Finally, the thing I'll remember most from the game were the hugs all the players were giving each other as the game wound down. You could tell all the pent up emotion these guys had bottled up throughout their journey. And the pride Team USA displayed in re-capturing the gold was something that should make every American proud, regardless of how unimportant some people think sports are. One camera caught Coach K, once the buzzer had sounded, looking on admiringly from the bench as the players celebrated on the floor. Coach K didn't need a gold medal (which coaches don't receive); he just needed the win. Watching the players celebrate an accomplishment that was three years in making seemed to have made his night. What a great coach he is.