On the morning of August 10, the first day Olympic basketball, Team USA beat China 101-70. Although the USA won big, they started slowly, and in the opinion of InsideHoops.com their halfcourt offensive execution was extremely unimpressive. But their athletic superiority was clear. Here's what forward Carmelo Anthony said after the game:

Question: Was there anything you saw tonight that was different from 2004?

Carmelo Anthony: Just the crowd. The energy when we got into the building, when we got out on the court, to see how excited the fans were.

Question: What was the atmosphere like tonight?

Carmelo Anthony: It was crazy. It was a great atmosphere. It was a great outcome. The fans were great. The arena was great. Everybody was energetic. We were excited. China was excited. I’m pretty sure President Bush was excited. It was great.

Question: Do you feel like you’re a part of history tonight with the Chinese and American presidents in the crowd sitting next to each other and cheering you on?

Carmelo Anthony: Oh yeah, we made history tonight. We can say that we were part of one of the biggest events in sports history. We can say that we were part of a game, part of the Olympics where presidents came to watch.

Question: Has the President watched you play before?

Carmelo Anthony: Oh, I’m pretty sure he’s seen me on TV (laughs), but I’m talking about him watching me at the Olympics!

Question: Can you talk about the contrast between your first game here and in Athens?

Carmelo Anthony: We lost by like 40 that first game, we were down the whole game. Puerto Rico had their fans out there but it was totally different this year. We had the Chinese fans with us, we had the USA fans with us and I’m pretty sure we had a couple of other countries out there cheering for us.

Question: Why do you think that is?

Carmelo Anthony: I think basketball has become so global right now. They watch us day in and day out on TV and they can say that ‘I’m a big fan of Carmelo Anthony or Kobe or LeBron, D-Wade.’ And to see all of us out there on the court at the same time is exciting.

Question: Do you think it signifies how you’re perceived also?

Carmelo Anthony: Yeah, four years ago we weren’t getting cheers from anybody but the little bit of people we had from the U.S. Now we don’t just have our people, we have China. We have different countries out there cheering for us.

Question: What are some of the things you did well and not so well tonight?

Carmelo Anthony: My poor shooting of the basketball. Me and as a team, we can do better. In the first half I think we shot like 15 percent from the 3-point line or something like that. But games are going to happen like that. There are going to be nights where we don’t shoot the 3-point, but we’re gonna have to do everything to win the gold.