"The essence of sports is war in peacetime. But it is a more civilized and progressive, reasonable and legal war. Compared with a real war that brings a lot of life harm and social destruction, sports competitions not only do not bring great disasters, but also benefit people." - educator, international sports activist, educator and historian, modern Olympic movement Pierre de Coubertin.

The Olympic Games originated from Greece, and the ancient Greeks were keen on sports and competitions.

It can be said that sports and military service were the most important activities in the daily life of the ancient Greeks.

Moreover, from a very early age, these two social activities have established a very close relationship and even become a mutually exclusive relationship.

On the one hand, sports and competitions met the needs of military training, and the sports field became a school for training soldiers.

On the other hand, changes in the mode of war have also promoted the vigorous development of sports and competitions.

Of course, since the moment the first atomic bomb was detonated on Hiroshima, war has become a distant past for most people on this planet.

Therefore, people who have nowhere to vent their remaining energy turned their attention to the sports field, which is one of the important reasons for the rise of modern sports.

People have never valued sports as much as they are today. What competitive sports brings to people is, in a sense, equivalent to a replacement for the war between the two countries.

Especially for team sports, there is no difference between the spiritual pursuit of the army in the traditional sense, emphasizing team, discipline and honor.

Just like this Olympic men's basketball final between China and the United States, this is not just a sports competition that concerns rankings.

What people care more about is the contest behind the two major powers of the East and the West. As Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, said, sports is a war in peacetime.

Since the former Soviet Union, American basketball has never encountered the challenge of such a big country with different cultural backgrounds and different political systems.

Many media described this game as a "rehearsal of World War III."

From the pre-match rating survey of this game, we can see that in China alone, nearly 50% of the audience watched the battle of the century between China and the United States through TV. The ratings exceeded the average of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which was equivalent to the sum of the five Spring Festival Galas.

On the other side of the ocean, the number of people watching the game is expected to exceed 100 million, equivalent to the number of audiences of four Grammy Awards.

However, compared with China and the United States, the ratings in Europe are a bit terrible. In addition to the annoying time difference, the most important reason is that this is the second consecutive Olympic Games in Europe that missed the final.

For a moment, the tone of European basketball was endless.

Their most proud teams Spain and Greece not only lost to the powerful Dream Team, but even China, whose professional league system has not been implemented for many years, could not beat it.

Many reformist sports people have begun to call on the European league system to align with the United States, and even more extremes believe that the American basketball system should be copied so that European basketball will have hope of a resurgence.

This is the first time that the Chinese team has entered the final of the Olympic Games for two major ball events in history, and basketball is different from football.

The highest-standard game in football is naturally the World Cup, but for basketball, the Olympic basketball game seems to be better than the World Championships.

Therefore, the Olympic men's basketball final is almost the highest-standard event in international basketball competitions, and the importance can be imagined.

This game brought countless heavyweight viewing guests, and the No. 1 brains of China and the United States were among the top viewing players.

As we all know, the current US President George is a sports fan himself. At the opening ceremony of this Olympics, he became the first American leader in history to attend the Olympics in other countries.

If most of the previous visit to China were from political significance, this time, it was just to enjoy the fun of watching the game.

In addition to these two heavyweights, many world-renowned figures, including Forbill Gates in the United States, are also among the audience.

Due to the traditional domestic scalper tradition, the lower ticket price of this game has been hyped up to tens of thousands, but the tickets for the finals are still priceless.

In order to warm up the final, CCTV started broadcasting the whole country two hours in advance.

Not only were several well-known domestic basketball commentators invited Su Qun and Yang Yi to analyze the lineups of both sides, but they also broadcast the pre-match press conference throughout the whole process.

Regarding the prediction of the game results, Su Qun expressed his own point of view: "I think both sides are playing 55, and our lineup is of course not as good as the opponent, but our several advantages are not available to the other party. The first is Yao Ming. His advantage in the inside is a strong point that the American team cannot solve in any case. Even Howard will still be defeated by Yao Ming..."

Then, a comparison of the career data between Yao Ming and Howard was played on the big screen.

Su Qun continued: "From the data of the two sides' confrontation, it can be seen that Yao Ming was completely suppressed when facing Howard in the past. If the Dream Team only sent him to defend Yao Ming alone, the inside would definitely be beaten. This can be seen from their semi-finals against Spain in the last game. Even Gasol can't solve it, let alone Yao Ming."

"What are the other reasons for Teacher Su?" Yu Jia asked.

"The second is rebounding. We have a great advantage in rebounding in this Olympics. In addition to Yao Ming, Li Rong's control of rebounding is also particularly important. Many rebounding games were not grabbed by Li Rong, but he helped his teammates get the position. We all know one thing, the person who controls the rebound can control the victory of the game. This is an eternal truth on the basketball court."

Yang Yi also nodded on the side and expressed his agreement.

"The third point is the most important, that is our home advantage," Su Qun said. "The psychological bonus of home court to players is very large, especially Olympic games like this, which is different from nBa's home and away games. The US team has to overcome many difficulties, including game time, venue, rules, etc., and these problems of our players do not exist."

"How likely is Teacher Yang's chance of winning in this game of the Chinese team?" Yu Jia turned to Yang Yi.
Chapter completed!