Reigning gold, everywhere

The fact that yesterday's game turned into a blowout isn't really a surprise, I suppose. The US has an incredibly deep team - basically two WNBA starter-quality teams on one squad. Who can compete with that? The closest anyone came was Russia, whom we beat by 15 points. Everyone else got their butts kicked by much, much more.

Seeing Team USA so happy was heart-warming, and there were pictures released afterwards of them behind-the-scenes. The 6'8" Anne Donovan even danced! I wish we'd have seen that. They hustled them off the floor immediately after the game, as opposed to 2004, when everyone lingered.

Sue Bird said this was the most fun team she's ever been on, because everyone was silly and having fun together. This didn't surprise me at all. I'm so glad they were able to have that experience.

What did surprise me was the way some people on various message boards immediately started griping and complaining about various aspects of the game and the team. For example, Candace Parker is a loser for having missed the dunk at the end of the game; Lisa Leslie is Satan for dancing on the podium during the anthem and wearing her four medals; Diana Taurasi is un-American for not singing the anthem with everyone else.

I'm wondering when everyone in America was suddenly appointed as a courtroom judge, because we sure see a lot of the judging and proclaiming of others going on these days. I have a theory, though: since the media pries into people's lives and puts out every little detail about celebrities, Americans feel like they know celebrities as if they were personal friends. And if you know someone, you can make proclamations about them. But in truth, we can only guess why Taurasi didn't sing. Maybe she was tired, for god sakes.

Another part of it is the crabs-in-the-bucket syndrome, which is when someone is successful, some people like to try to pull them down to make themselves feel better. The third element is that there are a heck of a lot of people that just like to find something to whine and complain about. Like, all the time.

I'm not letting any of that dampen my Olympic spirit - especially after last night when the USA women's and men's mile relay teams won the gold in track and field. The true Redeem Teams.

Though it will be kind of nice to get my life back again, I wish we didn't have to wait four long years for the next Olympics. Thank you for the memories, Beijing. It's been a great ride these last two weeks.

The WNBA starts back up in four days! Hallelujah. It's been a very long break.