Olympics Overload

Olympics Overview from a Couch Potato: I can't help myself. I really can't.  Every four years we are inundated with sports we never see, don't generally care about, couldn't name a player except for maybe basketball and swimming, yet we are mesmerized by the action, especially when it involves a participant or participants from the United States. I've watched archery, shooting, water polo, rowing, table tennis, cycling, beach volleyball, indoor volleyball and synchronized diving. I think if hoarding was an Olympic sport, I would watch it as long as the people with 728 cans of green beans were Americans. Really, you can take a Jamaican running the 100 meters in 1.7 seconds. I'll take Joe Bob and Susie Jean who had to build an extra garage to house their paper towels and toilet paper, as long as it's a little bigger than the one built by that Croatian couple for their 1250 pounds of dog food. Now forgive me, but it's time for women's weightlifting.

I Want to Be Coach K: So how hard is it to be Coach K? Or for that matter, assistant coaches Jim Boeheim and Mike D'Antoni? Let's see. We have Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul. And if they falter or get a little tired, we have Carmello Anthony, Russell Westbrook, James Hardin, Deron Williams and Kevin Love. And just think of the guys that aren't in London, including Derrick Rose, Dewayne Wade and Dwight Howard (although I'm sure Howard would have found a way to somehow intimate he may play for France, or maybe Argentina, no, make that Brazil......). Can you imagine what Coach K had to do to convince his assistants to come on board? "So, Jim, this is Mike.....Uh, huh you know, Mike K......Yeah, that one. Anyway, you know I'm coaching the Olympic squad, thought you might want to help out.........Well, not much, really. I mean, I don't have a hell of a lot to do myself. I was thinking maybe, you know, since you coached Mello for a season where he actually seemed to play defense, that you might see if you could get him to, you know, guard a guy now and then, not so much against Tunisia and Nigeria, but Argentina bothers me a little bit...........Well, if you want to put it that way, maybe a Mello-sitter makes sense. But I prefer to think of it as a nice vacation in London for a couple of weeks..........Your wife says she's in? Great. She can hang out with Anthony Davis...."

To Get a Little More Serious: The Olympics are only two days old and there has already been a lot of great action. The men won a terrific water polo game against Montenegro and were more dominant than expected in an opening volleyball match against Serbia. Michael Phelps finally showed his age in a fourth place finish in the 400 individual medley, but Ryan Lochte was terrific, so perhaps it's time to consider the torch passed. The US basketball teams both are on track for gold as long as they don't go brain dead for an extended period of time.  I think they both have far too much depth for that to happen. The women's soccer team has looked terrific since the first 14 minutes against France, as have all of the beach volleyball teams.  And a few Americans have won medals in sports such as archery, shooting and synchronized diving that are not generally on our radar. Like I said, I just can't help myself.....