Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

NBC is devoting part of each primetime show to promoting SNL?

 

Not saying Snoop is over-exposed, but I've heard "Stairway To Heaven" fewer times in my life than I've seen him mugging for the cameras in the Olympics.

 

Agree that it's odd Kerr couldn't find him ten minutes, but how deep can you go in your rotation in a 40-minite game? 12 players, 40 minutes ain't easy. If the game is competitive, and depending on what's working and what's not, a couple of players are going to have to take the hit on a given night. Guys need to get into some sense of rhythm and once KD went nuclear, that's one more player who was going to eat serious minutes.

Kerr was in a tough spot when the lead finally ballooned at the start of the fourth because what's more disrespectful, garbage time minutes or the DNP?

Of the non-bigs, Tatum's game is probably the worst suited for FIBA play. Lots of isolations and ball pounding but, unlike LeBron and Durant, he's not elite at it. He's not a selfish player but is probably the most prone to slip into the mode of looking for his shots (and tough ones, at that). Even in the playoffs when he was getting praised for his passing and rebounding, he was still taking (and missing) his shots. He did not shoot well in the exhibitions, either.

I'd play him over Booker but maybe the coaches value Booker's better handle over Tatum's better defense.

It's also tricky because the older players you'd assume would be transitioning to passengers on their farewell tour are still playing at a high level and look nearly indispensable.

FIBA seems to be more oriented around guards and bigs with less emphasis on wings. I can see Tatum having a major role should the US play Canada, as that team most closely resembles an NBA roster.

 

Badminton is insane. I watched a doubles match today between a Chinese pair and a team from Bulgaria and the quickness and reflexes on those players are off the charts. There was one point in the deciding third game that lasted a minute and 30 seconds, with 89 shots, 15 to 20 of which looked like sure winners until someone came up with a ridiculous shot to keep the rally going.

 

White plays because he’s a really good defender and glue guy (see his blocks?). Tatum is a fantastic scorer but less of the glue guy. Booker does more on D and is more likely to just move the ball.

 

I've watched a hell of a lot of Olympics so far but I'm watching the primetime coverage for the first time tonight. It's just genuinely awful. Sarah Jessica Parker is getting more airtime than Simone Biles at gymnastics. There is more focus on the celebrities than the competition.

I'm genuinely thankful there are so many subchannels carrying events. I love watching all the esoteric sports, and no endless cutaways of Lady Gaga.

 

It's always worth remembering at this point in the Games that there are three sporting events that regularly draw a larger female audience than male: The Kentucky Derby, and the summer and winter Olympics.

The primetime show is rather lame, but I think this is being deliberately targeted toward the people who would ordinarily be watching primetime network programming. Either because of work or other pursuits, NBC is banking on them not being online enough to know much about the result or that they don't care about spoilers. And frankly, for the sports that they're pushing into these slots, it's not rocket science. If Simone's in good shape mentally she's going to win by a mile. If there's diving, the Chinese are going to win.

If anything, I actually think NBC deserves a little respect (I won't go as far as to say praise). Granted, it's almost entirely the European time zone, but they haven't been burying the gymnastics and swim finals and such in some sort of quixotic attempt to protect the primetime audience. And if you want the sports for the sports, it's not nearly as hard as it used to be to find live. Amazing how being honest with your audience pays off. The nature of it makes the late night show almost entirely useless, though, as it's corresponding with the pre-dawn hours Paris time. I suspect Jost is there as part of the effort to get SNL's 50th season over, but having someone who can offer a mildly entertaining product for that late-night slot wasn't a terrible idea.

But overall, compared to some of what they were doing when the Games were in the Pacific Rim, I'd say this is more user-friendly than NBC has been.

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A couple other quick observations through two days:

1. Yes, Snoop has been remarkably overexposed but when you think about it, and about people like Leslie Jones, who is back doing her thing on Twitter (I recommend her thoughts on fencing from today), I think it's perhaps a phenomenon worth looking more into, but I think the core summer Olympics offerings resonate with the Black community in a particular way. As tired as I generally am with the bit, Snoop does seem to be genuinely invested in the events. I don't know if that's because wearing USA on your uniform temporarily insulates you from some of the racism in sports today, or if it's because Black athletes are succeeding in sports like gymnastics, or today fencing, or some other things where they can have some different role models, but I think it's starting to feel a bit like a trend.

2. Someone brought up how it always seems like these Olympians are, to steal a phrase, "majoring in something other than sports." The Fink kid is a working engineer. Today's fencing champion Lee Kiefer is a medical student at UK (also, kind of an OlympiCrush, but married. Don't know what it is with me and fencers). Heck in 2021, I think Maya DiRado cured cancer between the heats and the finals. I just love that. The excellence of it all. As I've said before, I struggle with gymnastics and a lot of judged sports because I need so much commentator help to even determine the difference between "pretty good" and "disastrous" unless the athlete lands on his or her ass, but I know Simone Biles is kicking ass. I'm assuming she's probably done after this one and maybe starting a family or something. I kind of hope she does just to prove that she's not some sort of alien who came down to earth like a tumbling Terminator. That's not a diss, I just don't quite understand how a human does what she does.

3. I find it unsettling how many competitors in the women's skateboarding today were like 15 and below. I guess maybe you can take the pounding of all those falls a little easier at that point, and I suspect the lighter weight and such probably helps, but the whole thing gave me some bad vibes today.

 

There’s a very good (and snarky) blog I follow during college gymnastics season called The Balance Beam Situation. They are live-blogging sessions (which has to be easier than Friday Night Lights in the winter when they are bingeing multiple meets and spitting out commentary in real time.) You can also scroll down and find “Clickable Code of Points” which goes into detail for what judges will look for and the relative value of each. (I think it is still listed with college scoring, but it still lets you know what’s what and the relative difficulty of each skill.)

https://balancebeamsituation.com/

https://balancebeamsituation.com/clickable-code-of-points/

 

Watching some events is just a reminder of the the two times a year I had to cover diving. Ninety-nine percent human interest because I sure as hell couldn’t tell a good dive from a bad dive.

 

After reading Joan Ryan's book earlier this year, finding it impossible to watch gymnastics. Sorry.

 

Okay, I have never seen a field hockey game before this morning. My back hurts from all the hunching over the women do when they are playing.

Get them some longer sticks!