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Olympics Xing
Xing (pronounced shing or sing) means journey in Chinese — fitting for this blog, which is all about the journey of the U.S. men's basketball team and N&O staff writer Luciana Chavez at the 2008 Beijing Games. She is covering her first Olympics and making her first trip to China. Check in here for Olympic news and for Luci's impressions getting to and being at the Games.
Team USA backs up James
Submitted by lchavez on 07/25/2008 - 18:46
USA forward LeBron James likely won't play on his sprained ankle tonight in Las Vegas against Canada, U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said Thursday.
But his teammates on the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team are covering James on and off the court. Here some of them respond to James' guarantee that the U.S. would win gold at the Beijing Olympics:
"He guaranteed it? Well, if he said it, we have to go and do it. ... He's just confident with the guys he's got around him." — Carmelo Anthony
"I hope he's right. The thing is, if I guarantee it, I don't have the ability to back it up. He has the ability to back it up. If he said it, that's our goal. We know it's going to be really difficult." — Mike Krzyzewski
"It's great. ... He's one of the leaders on this team. We all believe we're going to win the gold medal so for him to go out there and say that puts the pressure on use to go out and compete at a high level. I'm looking forward to that." — Carlos Boozer
"You have to visualize winning the gold. ... But we still have to go out there and play." — Dwight Howard
"You know I really don't understand the big deal about guaranteeing a win. We all feel we're going to win, so what's the difference with him saying we're going to? ... We're not going to guarantee we're going to lose. You have to feel you're going to win. That's how we all feel. That's how you have to approach it. We want to win." — Dwyane Wade
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