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You'll have to stay up late — after midnight — to see the men's gold medal basketball game and American team leader LeBron James play for the gold medal. The game starts at 2:30 a.m. Sunday EDT.

If you can't keep your eyes open that long, check out the men's marathon — perhaps the most Olympic of Olympic sports. It'll finish live during NBC's prime-time telecast from 7:30 p.m. to midnight EDT.

— Mike Persinger

BEIJING — At some point in this men's basketball competition at the Beijing Olympics, nearly every player on the U.S. team has seized a moment or two for his own.

If you're Argentina, that has to make you nervous.

Not every U.S. player has had his turn.

BEIJING — Everywhere the USA men's basketball team goes, their headphones are sure to follow.

Check out this picture: From left to right, that's Jason Kidd, LeBron James and Michael Redd walking through the mixed zone after beating Germany on Monday wearing the big headphones that were gifts from James. They're wearing "Beats by Dr. Dre" headphones."

Below, James talks about why he sprung for the headphones.

BEIJING — Jason Kidd might not ever live this down with his superstar teammates on the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team.

James committed the minor sin of taking a layup on a breakaway feed from LeBron James instead of dunking in the second half of an impressive U.S. win over Spain on Saturday.

He's already the oldest man on the team at 35 and takes plenty of stuff about that. Here's first James, then Kidd, talking about the play.

BEIJING — That killed the buzz.

The U.S. destroyed any illusions Spain might have had about being a close second favorite in the men's basketball competition at the Beijing Olympics with a 119-82 Pool B victory over the defending World Champions at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium on Saturday.

USA forward LeBron James scored nine of the Americans' first 16 points, while the U.S. forced Spain into boo-boo after boo-boo and beat Spain to the other end to score.

BEIJING — The first time I interviewed LeBron James, I was working at The Sporting News and James was 16 years old and still tearing up both the basketball court and the gridiron.

That was before he became the Next Big Thing, before he signed the huge Nike deal, basically before he became "King James."

So it's fascinating for me to watch James at work with the media here in Beijing at the Summer Olympics, and to hear what he will talk about openly and what he won't address.

On Wednesday before the U.S. team practiced at Beijing Normal University, we got some of the former.

Someone asked what it was like to ride the pine in 2004 at the Athens Games. Listen to his response.

Keep in mind that LeBron played well in Athens, he just didn't play a lot. The story, I'm told by people who were there, goes that U.S. coach Larry Brown had a habit of yanking James after he'd make a string of great defensive and/or offensive plays.

BEIJING — Someone forgot to flip the switch.

The U.S. beat Angola 97-76 at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium on Tuesday in a game that could only be described as a comedown from Sunday's electric opener against China.

It wasn't until a random group of fans op on the third level started chanting, "USA! USA! USA!" with the Americans up by 25 at the end of the third quarter that the building showed any life.

BEIJING - Check out this Coke commercial that's running through the Olympics.

I'm just wondering why Yao Ming's rocket-riding cartoon self doesn't totally bust through LeBron James' flying-on-the-wings=of-an-eagle cartoon self?

Obviously James won Sunday's round when the U.S. beat China in an Olympic basketball game on Yao's home turf. Cool commercial, though. I like the cartoon. Nice Mandarin, too, LeBron.

BEIJING — It was interesting watching USA forward LeBron James, who had just tickled a USOC press conference crowd with a little shoulder shake and shimmy, talk about what being American means to him on Friday.

James had to answer for America, too, when one non-American reporter asked if he would do more to help the U.S. win the popularity contest, the one it's currently losing, with the rest of the world. You'll hear James sidestep that one in the audio below.

But talking politics at event meant to promote peace is more of a conundrum for high-profile Olympians like James or USA teammate Kobe Bryant.

Three days after coming back from a mild sprained right ankle, LeBron James dropped 20 points on Turkey in USA Basketball's 114-82 rout during a Thursday evening game in Macao, China. The 12-hour time difference meant the game was played at 8 a.m. on the East coast.

That was the good news. The U.S. didn't play very good defense early on and Turkey led 27-24 with 1:42 to go in the first quarter.

James put the U.S. back on top with a second-quarter run, scoring on the offensive glass, taking a steal all the way for a score, putting in a free throw, and slamming home an alley-oop dunk from Kobe Bryant for a 13-point U.S. lead.