Saitama, Japan — Greetings on Day 10 of the FIBA World Championship (whew, only four more to go!). Things are now getting serious after a few weeks of watching blowouts and skipping around Nippon. It has become very clear that this tournament is all about three teams: USA, Spain and Argentina. I will be writing a lot about them in the next few days. I really expect the semifinals and the third place and championship games to be great basketball worthy of attention from every fan.

Before that, though, I’ve seen most of the teams here and been talking with a lot of basketball junkies from around the world who are more versed in the international game than I am. The combination of both has left me with the following thoughts:

The Orlando Magic are a budding force

Building on a strong finish to the NBA season, Darko Milicic looked great here in Japan. We all know he can shoot from the outside but here he showed off a pretty impressive left-handed hook shot. He was also aggressive going to the glass. In getting eliminated by powerful Spain, he banged with Pau Gasol all night and looked like he wanted to and got 15 rebounds.

Meanwhile, Dwight Howard’s athleticism continues to blow me away. Watching him outplay Yao Ming last week in Sapporo by constantly getting in better position for rebounds re-enforced my belief he’ll be the NBA’s best rebounder for the next decade. Then again Carlos Arroyo looked great for Puerto Rico. Obviously the guy has angered a few coaches, but his talent is unquestioned.

I expect those three guys to have huge seasons this year.

Linas Kleiza has a future

Even though the once-mighty Lithuanians are rebuilding and didn’t make the semis, I was pretty impressed with Kleiza. The former Mizzou star worked to get some minutes for the Nuggets last year. He didn’t have great stats here, but he is really learning to be a bruiser and he’s already talented offensively. I don’t think he’ll ever be a star, but he’s one of those international guys who looks like he could be a valuable role player.

Remember the name Ekene Ibekwe

The Nigerians were impressive here, almost upsetting Germany in the quarterfinals. They are starting a lineage and NBA teams are noticing, of course the Cavs drafted Ejike Ugboaja in the second round this year. He wasn’t here but Ibekwe was. A junior to be at Maryland, he’s athletic and big (6-foot-9) with a nice touch that I think some GMs were impressed with. The book on him is that he isn’t always a hard worker, but he looked strong here and some think he’s a first-round pick next year.

Marco Belinelli can shoot

I wrote about him before when the Italians played Team USA. The Italian guard has a pure, quick shooting stroke that reminds me of Brent Barry and he can do it falling away. He’s also tall (6-5) and pretty athletic. He isn’t sure how soon he wants to come to the NBA, but he’s only 20 and he’s got major upside. He was terrible when the Italians got eliminated by the Lituanians, but he will probably be a first round pick in the near future.

Eye the young Greeks

Spain (Gasol, Jose Calderon, Juan Carlos Navarro and now Jorge Garbajosa) and Argentina (Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto, Carlos Delfino and now Walter Hermann) all have players well known to NBA fans. But both Vasileious Spanoulis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis have a chance to make a name for Greece. Spanoulis is a shooting guard who will play for the Rockets this year. Schortsanitis is a massive low post player who has to weigh close to 300 pounds that the L.A. Clippers own the rights to. He looks like Robert Traylor but he’s taller and appears to have more offensive skills. Again, I’m not predicting stardom here, but they are players who have a future in the league Americans really care about.

    Saitama, Japan — Now, I get it.  I spent long hours at the Saitama Super Arena the last few days watching the round of 16 in the FIBA World Championship.  It reminds me of the NCAA Tournament, non-stop games with small pockets of fans pulling for their team with their own special traditions plus a mix of blowouts and tight games.
   
But after watching very closely, I’ve figured this out.  All this basketball is window dressing.  The sideshow.  The warmup act.  No, the main attraction the first few days of this event totally belongs to the dance teams.

    Am I serious?  Absolutely.  Am I a sexist? I don’t think so.

    There are these two dance troupes performing at all the games at the arena, which by the way is one of the most interesting buildings I’ve ever been in.  It is about the size of the United Center now, but it actually can slide apart and more seating and be inserted and make it more like the RCA Dome.  It all moves on these tracks.  Quite fascinating, but I’m way off point here.

    Switching off games, both dance groups emerge every single timeout in a new outfit, most of them more outlandish than revealing like NBA dance teams.  The performances are ethnic, in fact every game they perform a routine in the traditional wear of the competing countries.  Every routine is different and they aren’t afraid to come out in knee-high furry boots, hot pink emsembles, and with all kinds of props to twirl, toss, and pound.  When hit the floor, the crowd lights up and pulls out video and digital cameras and claps along to the music and really gets into it.  They do rhythmic gymnastics, ballet moves, irish dance and jazz steps.

    No, I’m not losing my mind, the wacky thing is the two troupes are competitive with each other.  Once, the Red Foxes, are from the Ukraine.  Other other, EuroDance, is from Lithuania.  And they are not friendly ex-Russian republics.

    While walking outside the arena in between games, travel confidant and ESPNer Chris Sheridan and I encountered a group of them.  "Hello Red Foxes!" Sheridan cooed.  Much to his surprise, he was quickly upbraided in old Soviet fashion.  We’d actually come across a Euro Dance faction.  Before we could comfortably procede, we had to swear allegiance to the Lithuanian entry. (Shhhhh, I think the Foxes might be better).

    Don’t worry, I’ll be covering this developing story.

    Oh, Team USA, they hammered Australia.  Get back to me when the games get serious, there’s a timeout coming up…   

Tokyo — In harried comings and goings of life, there is rarely time for reflective thought unless it is peering into the past. But this morning as I rode in a stuffed train from downtown Sapporo, Japan, to the New Chitose Airport, I realized I was leaving a place I’ll never return to again. A foreign and mysterious place, a place that grew on me but not enough for any sort of sentimentality.

I know to beware of such assumptions. Once, on a long cross-country trip with a friend, I bid Manhattan, Kan., adieu following lunch in a snobbish tone. Less than five mlles up the road we blew the engine and were stuck/trapped in Manhattan for several days. That is a story for a different time. Nonetheless, I’m gone from Sapporo and I won’t be longing.

I was on the same flight as Team USA this morning — yep, they are flying commercial — as we all headed for the next phase of the FIBA World Championship. Alas, Anderson Varejao and Brazil aren’t advancing and that is OK with the Greeks after this hit.

So far I think the Americans have made a good accounting of themselves. They are developing a style and they are playing with a purpose in stretches. They still bore easily and never seem to start with too much vigor. But I can’t blame them, I’ve been arriving at the arena 10 minutes before game time.

After his 17-point performance (that link also takes you to postgame audio) Thursday, I’m giving LeBron James a B for his efforts thus far. He has passed the ball very well and that is his role. Of course, he can score whenever he wants to but his outside shot has been inconsistent.

Overall I have not been impressed with his defense. Part of it is I think he’s playing out of position a little. They have him way out on the wings. I respect that he makes the effort and follows the program Mike Krzyzewski is trying to ingrain. LeBron is getting a bunch of steals because of it, but he always gets steals when he jumps passing lanes. But he’s simply getting beat off the dribble an awful lot, a combination of bad positioning and not being as quick as the guy he’s defending. I think some technique work could help that but I don’t get to see these practices so I don’t know if it is being worked on.

Meanwhile, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony are nearly off the charts. I know Carmelo has gotten a lot of credit and with merit, but Wade has been USA’s best player so far. His willingness to come off the bench is admirable and his ability to sense times to make plays has carried over from the postseason. If you have not caught these games, Tivo them or try to get up early, these three are enjoyable to watch work. Plus Elton Brand, Shane Battier and Chris Paul are true professionals.

When I arrived at my hotel in the Ginza district here in Tokyo today — it took four cabs (in two I was unable to explain where I needed to go and the cabbies and I parted ways unfulfilled), a train, a bus, and a Boeing 777 — my heart jumped when I saw a Denny’s across the street. No, I won’t eat every meal there. I’ll have you know I only went to McDonald’s once in Sapporo and had plenty of meals where not an English word was spoken and I was brought hot steamy dishes that smelled nor tasted like anything I’ve ever had. But it is all about the safety value of knowing you can find a hamburger or pancakes when you really need them. Until you go without, you can’t understand.

Still, this has been an experience even if often unpleasant. Virtually no one spoke English in Sapporo, so it was a definite challenge. But would I have enjoyed watching a group of Slovenians toast to their national team’s advancement in a bar last night — with chats of oompa, Slo-ven-ne-aaa! as they raised their chilled Sapporo Beers — as much it it were all easy? Would I have ever had the experience of mutton glutton, where you pay a fee and they bring you raw lamb, as much as you want, and you cook it at your table for 90 minutes? By the way that dish was called the “Genghis Khan” on the menu and included all the Sapporo Beer you could drink as well. But when the buzzer went off, you were shown the door.

The other day I was milling around in a flea market in a park near my hotel. People were selling all kinds of junk, just like back home. Golf clubs, used shoes, old books, and thousands of other once loved now discarded items. At one stand there was a Mickey Mouse figurine for sale for 500 yen, the outgrown property, I assumed, of a 10-year-old boy who sat with his grandfather as his ice cream cone dripped on his Cincinnati Reds shirt.

When I touched it, it started spinning and playing the melody to It’s A Small World After All. It certainly is.

Sapporo, Japan — Journalists are trained to be coldly objective, a trait that sometimes can make it seem to fans like we actually are rooting against the teams we cover.  But it is a bit of a different challenge, and a new challenge for me, at an event like the FIBA World Championships.

Above all else, I am American.  It crosses regional, political and religious lines.  When I watch the Olympics, I root for the Americans.  When it comes to business, I’d prefer it if American companies do the best.  And when they play the Star Spangled Banner before every game here it means something because the are only a few dozen Americans in the building.

Yet as I watch and break down the way Team USA plays, I feel a duty to stay in the middle.  It can be a challenge, much more so than covering the Cavaliers.  Especially when you know there is a pretty solid percentage of people in the building, much less the assembled media, who dislike you because of your nationality.

There are media members here who openly root for their team.  There is one guy, a TV personality from La Sexta in Spain, who has been going around and telling the U.S. players about the greatness of Espana and Pau Gasol for the last week.  The other night when the Slovenians lost to the Italians in a close game, it appeared as if the gathered Slovenian media had lost the game themselves.  From a journalist perspective, it is a mockery.  From a citizen’s perspective, it is probably honorable.

I can only imagine how it is to cover a war, where such loyalties are tested tenfold.  But it is an interesting position to be in, nonetheless.  Deep down I course I would prefer for the Americans to do well, but I have to be critical and brazenly honest in reporting on their play.

In other Japan news, I learned a new game today…Park Golf.  It really a cross between putt-putt and croquet.  You use a mallet and hit a plastic and rubber ball the size of a tennis ball over holes that range from 30-70 yards.  It is smashing good fun and tricky because you really can’t get the ball in the air and you have to judge how it will roll.  It is very popular in Sapporo, but is apparently more favored for senior citizens.  I got in 36 holes today with ESPN’s Chris Sheridan and we were the only two under 65 years old on the course.

We got plenty of looks, especially after Chris actually made a hole-in-one on a 40-yard hole.  It was quite a shot and he went bowing up the fairway as the always polite Japanese applauded.  What a show off.

Sapporo, Japan — It was a little bit of a ho hum night here, all expected the US to dominate China and they did, 121-90.  Also, LeBron’s postgame interview audio is available here.

Even with Yao, who isn’t in shape at all after being off since the spring after foot surgery, there was no way the Chinese were going to be able to handle the American pressure defense.  It wasn’t much of a game.

However, there is always something to see and in the modern world of basketball it is always prudent to keep an eye out for international talent.  Not that I’ve ever pretended to be a scout, but if you are a serious fan do yourself a favor and remember the name Yi Jianlian.  Or, to make it easier, just Yi.

He certainly appears to be the next major Chinese export to the NBA, though it is hard to tell exactly when he’ll make it.  He’s 6-foot-11 and athletic and already has some good muscle though it needs development.  He scored 13 points againt the US and had seven rebounds.  And, most importantly, he’s just 17.  Or so I think or at least am told.

His age has been a mystery for some time, the Chinese used to list him as being in his twenties and now they say he’s 18.  Some US players asked to get the straight answer and he told everyone he’s still 17.  The belief is the Chinese are trying to protect him from leaving for anywhere before the Beijing Olympics.  The running joke is that by 2008, he’ll be listed as being 15.

While he was on the foul line in the first half, one educated American fan yelled "Yi, how old are you?" from the stands.

But know this, he can play.  Team USA folks were talking about him after the game and there’s no doubt the NBA folks already know about him.  So far he’s been the best little find I’ve personally made since being over here.  I’m sure there will be more.

Sapporo, Japan — There is a word I keep repeating to myself over an over as I encounter new things at these world championships…bizarre. It is just so different from what I am used to with the NBA and in so many unexpected ways. I can totally understand why it is challenging for Team USA to compete in this enviornment.

The atmosphere at Team USA’s opening win over Puerto Rico today was totally different that what I expected. There were probably around 7,000 people at the game but the Japanese are so unfamiliar with the sport and so polite there was very little noise. They cheered simple athletic feats they are not used to seeing. Dunks of course, but even behind the back dribbles or rebounds when a player slapped the ball with his palm.

The arena is more like an auditorium with carpet that swallows sound and there’s almost no echo because I think the building doubles as a concert hall. So even from the second deck you could hear things going on down on the court and on the U.S. bench. Especially when Mike Krzyzewski cussed out his team after a lethargic start in the first quarter.

At one point an American fan angry with a call from the upper deck yelled down “You suck, ref.” I could hear him as if he were next to me. The Japanese fans gasped, seemingly upset at the breech of order and the challenge of authority.

To combat this quiet atmosphere, Team USA is openly standing and cheering for each other as if it was a Saturday morning junior varsity game and everyone in the place can hear them. Coming from an enviornment where these guys are mobbed megastars and seeing them play this way is just…bizarre.

The fans certainly know the big-time stars like Dwyane Wade, LeBron and Carmelo Anthony. When LeBron was introduced you heard several shouts of “LeeBraa,” as the accent makes it sound. But even that special attention is muted by 100 times what you’d expect on a normal night in the states. I know that Nike and the rest of the shoe companies are targetting Asia, especially China, because of the emerging basketball market but I see no evidence of it here and no ads or anything.

If fact it would be easy to be in Sapporo and not know this FIBA thing is going on. I’ve seen more billboards (one) for the FIVA World Volleyball Championshps, coming to Sapporo this fall, than I’ve seen basketball billboards (none). There was more excitement over a local robot show than an event Japan has been preparing for over the last nine years.

Learning new things every day…

Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan — Konnichiwa.  First, it appears the Cavs are close to a deal with Scot Pollard. Also, I am told they are in talks to make a trade in the near future, but I don’t yet have the details.  My guess that one of the shooting guards will be offloaded perhaps for nothing or a draft pick in return.

I’ve been here in Sapporo for two days now.  This city is supposedly the size of Boston, about 500 miles north of Tokyo.  From what I can gather from traveling around, its major industries are Sapporo Beer and the "spa" industry.  There are an uncountable number of these joints about with bizarre tactics for drawing in customers.  Some have "menus" of "services" outside the doors, others interesting billboards.  One I saw today showed a woman cleaning out a guy’s ear with a Q-tip.  I’m serious.

It took me just under 30 hours to get from Cleveland Hopkins to Sapporo via Houston and Tokyo.  After arriving at my hotel I needed a tutorial from ESPN.com personality Chris Sheridan to explain how my toilet works.  There are five buttons and a water pressure dial but none of them flush the thing.  I finally found a lever on the sink that did the trick.

Many signs here are in English but virtually no one speaks it.  I know about 10 Japanese words, so you can imagine the struggles.  When getting a cab to the arena today for U.S. practice I had to pretend I was dribbling and shooting a basketball to achieve understanding.  Luckily I have found a few Japanese reporters willing to help me at restaurants.

Earlier tonight I dined on pork salad, shrimp tempura (by the way, sometimes shrimp here come on the plate with the head still on it.  Try cutting that off with a chopstick!), and some sort of Japanese beans.  Sheridan was more adventurous and attempted raw squid and mackerel and some mashed up mushrooms that smelled like my garbage after a week.

Tonight (Friday night, well actually it is early Saturday as I write this) I attended the opening ceremonies.  It was a little strange because the room was so small and six teams were crammed in.  I got off the elevator and Yao Ming was laying on a couch yawning, other players were in shorts, and the Americans were in suits.  Plus there was this bizarre mascot walking around.

Afterward all the US players bolted for their rooms except Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard.  Bosh stayed and got Howard to take a picture of him and new Raptors teammate Rasho Nesterovic, who plays for Slovenia.  Assistant coach Nate McMillan and Bosh tried to buy stuff at this merchandise stand but they didn’t have any yen on them and the wise proprietors didn’t want American credit cards. At that moment, I was more financially viable than two millionaires.

Anyway, check back early Saturday both here and at Ohio.com.  The game with Puerto Rico starts at 1 a.m. Eastern and I’ll have a bunch of coverage.  Sayonara.

I’ve gotten several e-mails about a blip in an AP story today about a foot injury Anderson Varejao suffered in a game against France.  I’ve spoken with the Cavs, who have spoken with Andy from Korea and they report that it isn’t serious and he’ll just need a few days rest.  He is expected to be able to play for Brazil in the World Championships, which start in Japan this weekend.

Obviously everyone is a little raw from last August when Andy blew out his shoulder playing for the Brazilian national team.

On a personal note, I am leaving for Japan in the morning.  It is going to take me about 24 hours to get to Sapporo, where Team USA opens Saturday morning at 1 a.m. Eastern against Puerto Rico.  This blog will be a big part of the Beacon Journal and Ohio.com’s coverage of the event.  We will also have audio and podcasts on the web following each early morning game along with stories in the paper.

I’ve spoken to people with the Cavs and in Gooden’s camp, there is a verbal agreement on a contract.  Not everything has been settled but things appear to be positive.  His agent Calvin Andrews told me the total package was for three years and $23 million fully guaranteed with no team or player options.

This came together over the last few days, but they have been talking about the possibility of a shorter deal for a few weeks.  It appears the Cavs were willing to go a little higher on the average salary — more than $7.5 per year — if Drew took a shorter.  This makes him more tradeable to the Cavs over the next few years and richer in the meantime.

This is going to be spun both sides as the "Larry Hughes model," the idea of taking a shorter contract to set yourself up for a big one down the road. If you remember, Hughes signed a three-year deal in Washington and it set him up for a near max with the Cavs.  Expect to see something similar for Chris Wilcox now in Seattle.

Also, I sort of expect this deal to start high and then descend in value.  This will help ease the luxury tax burden over the years when Anderson Varejao’s new contract and LeBron’s extension get going.  For more on that, read my Sunday Column.

A story will be on Ohio.com shortly.

Spokane, Wash. — Sorry for the absence, I’ve been bounding around Western Canada for the last week with two high school friends on a long-planned road trip.  Been in beautiful places like Vancouver, Revelstoke, Radium Hot Springs, Banff and Canmore.  Been offroading on an ATV, whitewater rafting, in a hail storm at the top of a mountain, negotiating for the release of my friends after they became trapped at the top of a dam, and making an unending series of profanity-laced U-turns.  Here on some fresh thoughts on the Cavs.

–The Reggie Evans courtship isn’t a total ruse, I think the Cavs have some interest.  But I do think it’s a ploy by both sides to apply pressure in another direction.  Evans wants to pressure the Nuggets into making a deal while they seem to want for an answer from Keith Van Horn.  The Cavs want to pressure Drew Gooden into taking the offer on the table.  Interesting, though, that Drew’s agent, who is also Carmelo Anthony’s agent, wants Evans back in Denver (scroll down).  Calvin Andrews is a smart guy.

–The firing of Michael Reghi was a mistake for Dan Gilbert.  All the columnists have written this, both Terry Pluto and Bill Livingston of the Plain Dealer were on the mark as far I’m concerned.  I’ve said many times that I respect Gilbert for his business acumen and his overall belief structure.  If the guy who paid $400 million wants to hire the play-by-play man, Fred McLeod, he’s known as a friend for 20 years and he’s listened to as a Pistons fan then he has every right to do so.  But he has to respect his customers opinions as well.

I’ve heard McLeod is a good guy and a pro, of course he is because the Pistons run a class organization.  However, he’s got no chance here at least for the first year or two.  No matter what he does, fans will compare him to Reghi and he will never live up in many of their minds.  That means Gilbert has no chance of being right.  In life, I’ve learned that is a position you want to avoid.

The thing is, Reghi and Gilbert had a mostly good relationship.  I have a pretty good feeling that the owner doesn’t care for Joe Tait.  Gilbert hates negativity in life, which he’ll tell you if you ever want to join Quicken Loans.  He fires people for being negative.  Tait, as we all know, has no problem being negative on the air.  He is not a cheerleader and that’s what Gilbert wants.  Tait has one year left on his contract and hinted in the past he’d retire when he’s 70, which he’ll be this year.  But he also loves calling games with LeBron James in them and may very well want to stick to it.  That should be an interesting situation to watch, huh?

Of course, with LeBron, people are going to watch and listen no matter what, we all know.

–As far as Drew Gooden goes, I have nothing to add that I haven’t already written.  I believe the scenario is the same and Drew is prepared to wait it out and direct pressure back on the Cavs.

–Interesting update on Lenny Cooke.  When I covered LeBron at the ABCD Camp in New Jersey when he was 16, Cooke was all the rage.  I remember him telling the local media that he wanted to challenge Kobe Bryant, who was there to speak to the players, to a 1-on-1 game.  LeBron ripped him up in game a few days later and was named MVP.  Cooke maintained for years he was better than LeBron, even though he went undrafted and at times couldn’t get on the floor for summer league games because he didn’t know the plays.  But I do wish him well, he’s been though a lot.

–I leave in a week for Japan for the FIBA World Championships.  Please stay with me and Ohio.com, we’re going to have good stuff including live blogging of games, podcasts, photos and perhaps video along with daily blog posts and, of course, game stories.