With the 2008 Beijing Olympics just around the corner, Team USA is already in Macau, China preparing for the summer games and bound to redeem themselves after a woeful showing in international play for the past seven years. USA Basketball finished sixth place in 2002 World Championship. In addition, USA Basketball failed to win the gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics as they lost lost three games on its way to a bronze medal, a record that represented more losses in a single year than the country's Olympic teams had suffered in all previous Olympiads combined.
Now things are looking good for the Men's National Basketball Team as they have added proven leaders with the likes of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and Jason Kidd. On the lighter side, with team USA in China right now, let us take a look on two basketball superstars - Kobe Bryant and Lebron James and see and their Chinese names say. First off with Lebron James. Lebron's definition of Chinese name is Liu that means willow tree and pleasure while his surname James in Chinese stands for Jiang. This translates to Jiang Liu bo for Cleveland Superstar LeBron James.
For the "Black Mamba" Kobe Bryant his Chinese translation is Bei Kuang bang - (Kuang - extensivel, wide and broad) while (bang - nation, country and state). Well, Kobe Bryant can carry this team all the way back to the international scene and win his first Olympic Medal.
Team USA is determined to put an end to these recent failures, USA Basketball has changed its philosophy and has looked to field complete teams instead of piecing together rosters of NBA All-Stars at the last minute. Team USA won their first seven games at the 2006 World Championships in Japan, losing against Greece in the semi-finals. After coming away with a bronze, Team USA is still striving to recapture international gold.
*image courtesy of Ball Don't Lie