By CHRIS TOMASSON, Scripps Howard News Service

Allen Iverson has been voted a starting All-Star guard eight of the past nine years.

Which was the one season in that span the fans gave him less love?

The one in which he was traded to the other conference.

David Robinson is the only U.S. player to have won three Olympic men's basketball medals while 12 have won two. Current players Jason Kidd, who won gold in 2000, and Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade, who all got bronze in 2004, can join the list of multiple medal winners:

Player Olympics Medals

BEIJING -- No, Carmelo Anthony has not technically given a guarantee. Anthony got out of the guaranteeing business four years ago when he promised a gold medal for the Americans and they ended up with a fold medal.

Nevertheless, Anthony can sense redemption is at hand. Four years after Team USA's Greek tragedy, he's counting on standing on the top of the podium Sunday.

BEIJING -- It was a day to try to save face.

At the Olympics, the host nation automatically qualifies for every team sport. So China got berths in all 14 such men's and women's sports, even those in which it looked to be hopelessly overmatched.

BEIJING -- At the 2004 Olympics, Brunei was one of three teams represented by just one competitor. But Brunei is down to zero, having been excluded from these Games after failing to register a single athlete.

BEIJING -- No man is an island.

That might be true. But Nauru is a one-man island team.

During the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, Itte Detanamo was the proud flagbearer for Nauru, a tiny speck in the South Pacific. But it wasn't as if too many meetings were held to decide who would do the honors.

BEIJING -- David Oliver has a decent shot at a medal. But the American hurdler is still acting like a fan at the Olympics.

Oliver went this week to a U.S. women's basketball game, and seated in the stands were members of the U.S. men's team. USA. Oliver got out his camera and snapped away.

How do we know this?

BEIJING -- If you want to locate a certain Chinese assistant basketball coach, don't look at the bench when China opens the Olympics on Sunday against Team USA.

Don't even look in the stands.

If you want to find Donn Nelson, he most likely will be hidden away in his Beijing room.

BEIJING -- One wonders what Chairman Mao would be thinking.

With rock music blaring, a dozen scantily clad Chinese girls are shimmying on the sand at the Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground. Beijing resident, Phillip Tu, 38, has his long camera lens focused on the girls.

How many pictures have you took?

"A lot," he said. "Very young. Very exciting."

BEIJING -- Scottie Pippen doesn't take a backseat to Michael Jordan.

At least that's the word from Del Harris on how the Chinese feel about the former second fiddle on the Chicago Bulls.