(Mavs trainer Casey Smith is also performing those duties for Team USA. He's keeping a journal on life at the Olympics in Beijing.)

Our first full day in Beijing and I wake up at 6:00 am August 7, 2008. It has been a packed first day-and-a-half. Last night when we got in we had our first team meeting that wasn't revolving around scouting an opponent. Basically it was just very directed points about what the team needs to do to be successful.

We are staying at the Intercontinental in the financial district of Beijing and sharing quarters with the Women's team as well. The hotel is really nice, as is to be expected, but it is not really close to anything. From what I understand the subway stop is only about a 10-minute walk, so we are planning on getting out a bit after we get through these first couple of days.

Last night after our team meeting, the entire team took a trip to the Olympic Village. My only experience with Olympic-style housing was Athens in 2004 and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 2003. Let's just say that whatever problems that are associated with a communist government, construction and manpower aren't one of them. The Village is beautiful. It is a series of apartment buildings 10 stories tall and it houses approximately 10,000 athletes and the associated services like the hospital, laundry, dining hall, etc.

The theme of the Olympics so far is security and the IOC has been very strict with the credentials and what they allow people to do and where it allows them to go. I am lucky, as I am part of the official USOC medical staff so my credential is all encompassing and allows me to go anywhere at any time. Our first full day here we had 2 practices, which was yesterday, and today the guys had the official IOC media day with one hour of press conferences, then straight to practice, then team lifting after.

Now we are back at the hotel, it is 4:45 pm here and the team is getting ready for opening ceremonies. Bummer for me, I am not able to attend. The IOC limits the number of support staff that can go, so out of the 40 medical personnel that represent the USA here, only 7 people get to go and I was not one of the ones selected. I can't really complain though, since I did get to go in 2004 in Athens.

The good news is that I still get to keep the sweet white slacks that are part of the parade outfit and the blue sport coat with the Olympic rings on it. All in all, though, it is a long day since the staging for the ceremonies, the parade and return to the village then the hotel will take 8+ hours. The good side of this is that the guys will be gone for the whole night and we can actually relax a bit and do whatever we want. So it's not all bad.

We practice at a place called Beijing Normal University which is a university that the USOC has rented out for our teams to have access to training facilities outside of the normal venues. Once the games start, practice time is extremely structured and you can't vary at all. This gives us some flexibility and also gives us our own medical facility, weight room, training room, etc.

Again, I have still been very busy, but all in all it's exciting and the guys are definitely ready to play some games. The past 3 weeks have been a lot like the NBA pre-season in that it's hard to get pumped up for all the games when in the back of your mind you know they really don't matter.

I am also the budding photographer. Check out the photo credits on this linked page. I took this when we were at the athletes village the other night. I attached a couple other pictures. One of me and Keith working pre-game, and another of me on some dragon thing in front of a bank in Shanghai. The best part about that one is the security guard coming up behind me. He wasn't pleased in the slightest.

Anyway, I am going to kick back and watch the opening ceremonies tonight and enjoy the show. It's just over 48 hours 'til the first game, which is at 10:15 am EST on the 10th on NBC. It is us against China and they expect it to be the most watched basketball game in history.

That's it for now.