Olympics Carryover

Kobe Bryant is still fueled by the memory.

He was on a bus in China six months ago after the U.S. Olympics basketball team defeated Spain to win the gold medal at the Beijing Games. Even now, Bryant says he can close his eyes and see LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, whooping and hollering with hardly a care in the world.

"You see these guys, these quote-unquote superstars, hanging loose like a bunch of high-school kids, just going crazy. It was great," Bryant said. "There was so much energy in the locker room after the gold medal, the champagne and the guys just having a good time.

"That energy has carried over to now."

It will be on display today during an NBA Christmas Day showcase as five U.S. gold-medal winners headline a five-game feast for fans and TV viewers.

Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers will play the host to the Boston Celtics in a Finals rematch on ABC.

Paul and Howard will reunite when the Orlando Magic plays the New Orleans Hornets on ESPN. James and Cleveland will play Washington in the first of a TNT double-header, and then Kidd will lead Dallas into Portland in the second game. The other Christmas Day game has an Olympics feel, too: San Antonio, with Beijing veterans Manu Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto, visiting Phoenix (ABC).

Players say there is definitely a correlation between the success of Beijing and stardom this NBA season.

Bryant's Lakers are atop the West, James leads the MVP talk, Paul now makes double-doubles seem easy, Howard has cemented himself as the game's dominant big man, Miami's Dwyane Wade is having his best regular season -- and each took a boost from the Olympics title.

"To win the gold just uplifted all of us into this season," James said. "A lot of people were wondering if we'd hit a wall because we played in the Olympics. But look at everybody from the Olympic team. Everybody is playing the best they've ever played."

Maybe not everybody, but it's close.

Wade (29 points a game) leads the NBA in scoring and has the Heat back in the playoff chase after last season's 15-win disaster, when he was besieged with injuries. James is shooting better than ever, Howard leads the league in double-doubles with 20, and those two are keeping the Celtics from turning the East into a complete runaway. Toronto's Chris Bosh is on pace for a career-high scoring average, and Bryant, again, is an MVP candidate with an eye on a fourth NBA ring.

"It gives you a boost individually and in what you bring to your team," Wade said. "You're not only around winning, you're around greatness, competitiveness. You just knew how good it felt and how it was done, so you bring that back to your organization. It helps a lot."

Some paid a price

In some cases, though, that summer of competitiveness came with a price.

Howard has dealt with a tender knee, a condition that Coach Stan Van Gundy of the Magic believes was exacerbated a bit by the extra strain of the demanding Olympics schedule. San Antonio was without Ginobili for the early part of the season as he continued to recover from a nasty ankle sprain that he aggravated in Beijing and ultimately needed surgery to fix.

Three other gold-medalists, Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz and Michael Redd of the Milwaukee Bucks, all have missed time with injuries in the early portion the NBA season.

"Some guys are maintaining right now from what they did in the summer, and some guys have hit a little bit of a wall," Coach Jay Triano of the Raptors said. "I think it has to do with their personalities and how they deal with different things, and how their team's doing."

Dirk Nowitzki is one example. Dallas is once again proving to be a playoff contender, winning 14 of its last 18 games, and the numbers are up for Nowitzki, a German Olympian. He is averaging 26.2 points and 9.1 rebounds and shooting 90.8 percent from the free throw line.

In San Antonio, Ginobili is still paying a price for the Olympics. But San Antonio has shaken off a rough early stretch (five losses in seven games) and is climbing back up the West standings. And with the Spurs playing well, Ginobili -- who tweaked the problematic ankle again Tuesday -- is finding that he can pace himself somewhat in his quest to back to 100 percent.

"I still don't think I'm there yet," said Ginobili. "But that's the great thing about playing on a great team."

Seeing Ginobili get hurt in Beijing was nightmarish for Coach Gregg Popovich of the Spurs -- who then lost Tony Parker to another sprain early in the NBA season.

Coach questions benefits

Popovich thinks it's a confidence booster for some to have the Olympics experience, but in most cases, he just can't see it providing any tangible help to players who are already superstars.

"I think it's a great honor and great fun, but I'm not so sure they become better players," Popovich said. "It would be hard to prove."

Maybe beating Angola by 21 and Germany by 49 and Australia by 31 didn't make any of the Americans better.

But what about when Team USA practiced?

Players such as Wade and James said there's no comparison for the intensity of match-ups every day in practice, and cited those runs as the ones where they got their true springboard into this season.

"It was challenging and fun to go out there and compete against 12 of the best guys in the world, man," James said. "How could you not get better going against Kobe and Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul and the rest of the guys every day?

"There is no way you can't get better. Just the competition alone. It was fun."

Wade had similar sentiments, and competition might have even been harder on him in practices, since he was with the second team and had to guard James much of the time.

"It doesn't get any better than that," Wade said. "Or any harder."

For some of the Olympics champions, getting off to great starts is no surprise.

After all, it's hardly a new thing for players such as Bryant, James, Howard, Paul and Wade -- among the best in the world -- to be dominating the NBA.

And it's not just about the numbers.

Denver's Carmelo Anthony is seeing his stats dip a bit over past years, even with former scoring partner Allen Iverson now shipped to Detroit.

But the way Anthony sees it, he's playing far more effectively than ever -- a concept he learned in Beijing.

"I brought the same approach to this team," Anthony said. "I brought the idea of depending on my teammates more and helping them build confidence in themselves."

Fatigue a concern?

The trick could be keeping this level up for the entire season, with limited rest this past offseason.

Sure, none of the U.S. players in Beijing averaged more than 25 minutes per game. But the combination of everything -- training camp in Las Vegas, traveling to the other side of the world, countless media demands and other obligations, along with hustling back to the U.S. for post-Olympics responsibilities with endorsers and such -- made for a hectic few months for the Redeem Team.

Keeping those stars fresh is very much on the minds of some of their coaches, many of whom have seen players return from Olympics appearances and not be at their best the next season.

"We're concerned about it. There's no doubt," said Coach Phil Jackson of the Lakers, who doesn't just have Bryant to worry about, but Spain's Pau Gasol as well. "He took an extended period of time off after the Olympics and rejuvenated himself, then started over again and started his work ethic. He's a hard-working guy, so it's been a real issue."

Bryant isn't so worried, though. In fact, it doesn't seem like any of the U.S. gold medalists are fretting over not being at their best when the NBA games start meaning the most.

It goes back to that bus ride, that championship moment.

Those who were there will never forget it, and will spend the rest of this NBA season desperately trying to match it when the title gets decided in June. Fatigue, they said, won't deter them in that chase.

"When they throw the ball up," Paul said, "you forget about all of it."