The Olympics done right, and U.S. Open late night

A few final thoughts on the Summer Olympics and others news from the sports world as we wait for the final days of the college football offseason to expire.

U.S.A. BASKETBALL BACK ON TOP

If you didn’t get to watch the men’s basketball gold medal game, you missed an amazing display of basketball at its highest level. Spain played great, but when it mattered most, the United States was better, pulling out a 118-107 victory.

I was like a lot of people who had lost interest in watching the Dream Team. After embarrassing performances at the 2002 and 2006 World Championships as well as a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics, it appeared the professional players did not care about representing their country. But this version of the U.S. National Team, we were told, was different. Not that I had anyway of knowing for sure since NBC didn’t seem to care enough about men’s basketball to air it in primetime, but seeing the scores and reading the stories revealed a U.S. squad that was beating foreigners in a manner most Americans had come to expect.

So, Saturday night I set my DVR for the 1:30 a.m. tipoff, and when I watched the game Sunday afternoon was impressed with what I saw.

First, the level of international play has come a long way since 1992 when the original Dream Team was able to sleepwalk its way to a gold medal, winning every game by more than 30 points. The Spanish team was loaded with NBA players. Usually a Dream Team victory by less than 20 points is more a result of poor play by the U.S., but that wasn’t the case Sunday. The original Dream Team spread the basketball gospel to the world, and over the past 16 years we’ve seen more foreigners enter the NBA and become impact players. At the same time, international teams have been hard at work, aiming to catch the Americans.

Over the past eight years, it was clear the world had caught up to the U.S.A., and national teams like Spain, Argentina and Greece appeared to have passed us by. We first realized it in 2004. We finally decided to do something about it in 2006, and now it appears the United States has reasserted itself as the dominant basketball nation in the world.

So, what made the difference? Watching the fourth quarter of the gold medal game, it was obvious. The U.S. players cared.

There were Michael Redd and Carlos Boozer, having not taken their warm-ups off all game, looking no different than the high school or college kid who sits at the end of the bench, jumping up and down with every made basket, screaming in support of their teammates and racing off the bench to celebrate and encourage at every timeout.

There were Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and Dwayne Wade — arguably the three best basketball players in the world today —jumping, hugging and racing around the court like high schoolers who had just won a state championship. This wasn’t about contract extensions, signing bonuses or shoe sales. This was grown men, expressing the childlike joy of playing and winning that first drew them to the game.

There was Carmelo Anthony, too nervous to sit in his chair, watching each possession from his hand and knees, pounding his fist on the court, again looking more like a kid on the Princeton bench during the closing minutes of an NCAA tournament game than a millionaire celebrity.

As a member of the 2004 Olympic team and the leading scorer on the 2006 World Championship team, Anthony had been adamant that this team would restore the United State’s place on top of the basketball world. His tears as the national anthem played after receiving his gold medal said all that needed to be about how much the Olympic experience meant to him.

BOLT DOES IT THE RIGHT WAY IN 200

Last week I expressed my admiration and frustration with Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt after he coasted to victory and still set a new world record in the 100-meter final.

Today, I’m going to say “thank you” Mr. Lightning Bolt. Thank you for giving your all in the 200-meter final. Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old world record would still stand today if Bolt had not gone full throttle from the starting blocks to the finish line. As television replays showed, Bolt knew he had the race won with 50 meters to go. But as the strain started to show on his face, his eyes darted quickly between the clock and the finish line. He knew the chance to make history was in front of him, and his pushed is body to its limit in order to make it happen.

That is what we expect to see from the world’s best athletes, and doing it on the biggest stage makes it that much more special.

TENNIS — DON’T FORGET ABOUT U.S. OPEN

The Olympics are done, but there are still plenty of great, live, late-night sports to watch on TV over the next few weeks. The U.S. Open tennis tournament started Monday. Any good tennis fans could tell you that late night matches at the U.S. Open are broadcast every night on the USA cable network.

Something about playing at night, in front of a rowdy crowd with a national TV audience brings out the best in the players. Some of the greatest matches over the past decade at the U.S. Open have been played in the first four rounds — on a weeknight, with the first serve coming sometime after 8 p.m. CDT, and the final shot being struck close to or after midnight.

Monday night’s first-round match between No. 9 seed James Blake and 19-year-old rising American player Donald Young looked like it would be a snoozer after Blake won the opening set 6-1. But Young showed flashes that he might someday be a special player. His combination of raw speed, quickness, touch, power and shot-making were on display, and in the second set he added some consistency to the mix, leading to a 6-3 victory. Blake bounced back and cruised through the third set (6-1) and appeared to have broken Young’s spirit, leading the fourth set 2-0. He was two points from a 3-0 lead when Young rallied to win the game, and a funny thing happened: the crowd turned on Blake. It wasn’t so much that they started to cheer against Blake (normally a fan favorite), it was more a case of pulling for the underdog, exhorting Young to keep fighting, extend the match and give the spectators their own late-night classic memories. Young responded, breaking Blake’s serve twice to comeback and win the fourth set 6-4.

In the fifth set, both men gave the fans what they wanted. The rallies were intense. Go-for-broke winners were flying from both sides of the court. It wasn’t quite at the level of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s fifth set at the 2008 Wimbledon final, but under the lights with a raucous New York crowd, it was just as good to watch on TV. In the end, with the set tied at 4 the veteran Blake found a way to break Young and claimed the final set 6-4. The crowd thanked Young for his efforts with a champion’s ovation as he walked off center court, then stayed to help Blake celebrate his hard-fought decision.

For the next two weeks, the U.S. Open will be on USA each night. Blake-Young was not a fluke. It’s what tennis fans have come to expect, more often than not, every year during the last week of August and first week of September. If you’ve never checked it out, I encourage you to do so.