More on the American connection to the Olympics. First off, for all the talk about sportsmanship and hail-well-met-old chumminess (and let's not get too cynical - this indefinable feel-good quality is present, otherwise no one - er, me - would watch it) this is a capitalist event. General Electric, the company that owns NBC and who provided the IT infrastructure to all the 37 Olympic event locations in Beijing, has already made $1.7 billion from these games. In fact, this article says GE has been providing electronic help to the Olympic adventure for over 70 years. It knows a great international marketing opportunity when it sees one. So does the NBA. An article in yesterday's LA Times explains how the dream team is at the vanguard of promoting the NBA (and Nike) to 1.3 billion basketball fans in China.
