BEIJING – The Americans had come for a cleansing of spotty basketball, the starts and stops, the residue of Greece dancing on the United States’ global basketball grave in the World Championships. All gone now, obliterated under an avalanche of good, old-fashioned American excess. This victory was a grander Team USA vision that validated itself in a baseline-to-baseline blur of red, white and blue.

The Americans are transforming into the world’s worst basketball nightmare again, a staggering shuttle of talent engaged and enlightened on the European game and determined on defense.

So much for Greece’s pick-and-roll paralyzing Team USA, which won 92-69 Thursday at the Olympic Basketball Gymnasium. So much for tearing open old wounds. So much for coach Mike Krzyzewski struggling to diagram a way out of that debacle. Kobe Bryant is on the clock now, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are grown up and the coach’s clipboard is increasingly obsolete here.

As the Americans rushed out on the court

BEIJING – When Jason Kidd logged into a laptop to see the Spaniards with his own eyes on Wednesday morning, the photo appeared just as described to him: Here were National Basketball Association players giggling like schoolgirls as they posed with fingers pressed against their temples in a squinty-eyed pre-Olympic salute to China.

Before long, Kidd considered the consequences had those giddy European faces been substituted with those of Team USA.

“We would’ve been already thrown out of the Olympics,” he told Yahoo! Sports. “At least, we wouldn’t have been able to come back to the U.S. …There would be suspensions.”

And for his European peers, well, Kidd suggested, “They won’t do anything to them. It’s a double standard.”

For Spain, there are several NBA players, including the Lakers’ Pau Gasol and Toronto’s Jose Calderon, in this unnerving team photo. They wore Spanish uniforms and had the federation’s seal on the floor. It ran as a full-page advertisement in a Madrid newspaper, an

BEIJING – The boldest basketball visionary in these Olympic Games spoke softly over the din of screeching sneakers and a most un-Soviet voice booming in the middle of it all. Sergei Tarakanov is the general manager of the Russian men’s basketball team, a loyal son of the Cold War, a Red Army star with a hole in his heart over the 1980 and 1984 Olympic boycotts.

He had wanted so desperately to beat the Americans. Even now, this never leaves him.

Still, Tarakanov sighed, “To find the balance between the old Soviet Union system and this freedom is not easy.”

The essence of this conflict soon walked past the scorer’s table in the Shougang Gymnasium on the outskirts of the city. David Blatt, a Jewish American, had his Russians working on those back-door cuts that are a part of his coaching DNA going back to his days as Princeton’s point guard under Pete Carril. Big game, small world.

As Russian tanks plow into American-backed Georgia, Tarakanov and Blatt have turned into an even more

BEIJING – Armando Costa was 9 years old when Charles Barkley infamously thrust that elbow into the chest of a poor Angolan named Herlander Coimbra. As it turned out, that was the unforgettable moment of the original Dream Team’s victory over a neophyte basketball nation.

This time, there was no such humiliation in the United States’ 97-76 victory Tuesday night in a Group B game.

“They were more friendly,” Costa said.

And Angola was much tougher, surprising itself that it could score 76 points on the Americans. So far, the United States hasn’t been as impressive as its hype in these Games, but Thursday delivers some drama into the pool play. Here comes unbeaten Greece, the source of the U.S.’s freshest embarrassment in international play.

Two years ago, Greece beat the United States 101-95 in the semifinals of the World Championships in Japan. Since then, the loss has hung over USA Basketball. There was no mystery to the loss: Coach Mike Krzyzewski had his players unprepared to defend

BEIJING – On his way out of the game, Yao Ming thrust his fist through the air, and soon made that long, wobbly walk to the Chinese bench. The end of a brilliant and historic night for basketball, the end of responsibility for Yao. His work is done. Let him rest.

“The game was a treasure,” Yao said, “and it will be a treasure for the rest of my life.”

Here was a surreal sight on Sunday night in these Olympic Games. Here was the embodiment of Yao Ming’s legacy: His heart, his determination, his immensity. He made possible a billion people worldwide watching a basketball game on television. He made possible these blistering ovations and rock-star treatment the U.S. players receive here. He made possible the hundreds of millions of dollars that David Stern can generate here.

Yao leaving to an ovation.

(Getty Images)

And above all, Yao gave China its Olympic flag-bearer and iconic athlete to frame the most important engagement it’s ever had with the world.

“Yao built the bridge for

BEIJING – Management had been such a comedy of confusion and missteps, and still Chris Kaman considered himself the constant that the Los Angeles Clippers could count on. When most of his teammates were determined to leave, Kaman committed to a long-term contract. He had hoped they would've better honored his desire to chase an Olympic berth with enthusiasm, but the Clippers' apprehension over his gimpy ankle has left him disillusioned.

"The Clippers made it very difficult for me to get over here, with the (medical) insurance and them not wanting me to go," Kaman said. "They lied to me a couple times. I didn't appreciate it."

He wouldn't reveal those so-called lies, but the trouble centered around an ankle that Kaman confesses is still sore.

"I don't want to throw the Clippers under the bus," he said, just after, well, he did say they lied to him. Kaman didn't seem angry, just disappointed. After all, this hasn't been the easiest summer to be a Clipper. Elton Brand is gone and a little

BEIJING – For Kobe Bryant, there has long been something so liberating about leaving the United States and traveling out into the big, beautiful basketball world. He still is as polarizing as he is popular in America, but across the globe they’ve never judged Bryant so harshly for past misdeeds. They give him what he wants, which is what they always gave Michael Jordan: unconditional adulation.

When Bryant walked into the National Stadium for these Beijing Games, even the biggest Olympic star of them all became breathless over the magnitude of the moment. Here was the most magnificent, most moving opening ceremony since Barcelona in 1992, and only the Chinese national team inspired a louder roar than Kobe Bean Bryant. He knows what ’92 did for the Dream Team and Jordan, and knows what it can do for him now.

All along, Bryant has insisted that a gold medal would be bigger than his three NBA titles. No one believes him, but he keeps saying it anyway. “This is way bigger,” he said again

BEIJING – Kobe Bryant won't sign a contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers until he has tested the global market, the U.S. Olympic basketball star told Yahoo! Sports on Saturday.

Asked whether he plans to solicit overseas offers before signing an extension, Bryant flatly said yes.

It's possible Bryant could leave the NBA for Europe – perhaps in a dual role of owner and player – as early as next summer. Bryant is signed with the Lakers through the 2010-11 season, but can opt out after next season.

Suddenly, the best player in the world seems determined to pair the changing global economics with his unparalleled popularity to create an international bidding war. A day earlier, Bryant told the Boston Globe that he would consider a $50 million offer to play in Europe.

"As players, the business of the game (is) evolving," Bryant said before a Team USA practice at Beijing Normal University. "I think free agency now is becoming a global thing …. When players become free agents, the