All in all, Spain should be proud for taking a team of NBA All-Stars to the limit. There's no shame in losing to perhaps the most talented team to ever step foot on a basketball court ... right? That's not how Spain's starting center Felipe Reyes (pictured, getting demolished by Kobe Bryant) team sees it. From SportsYa.com (via HoopsHype)

"I think we deserved to win the gold medal because we did an incredible job. If it hadn't been for the officials, we'd have the gold instead of the silver," center Felipe Reyes said.

"If they had blown the whistle for the steps they take, the defense with the hands they use and had blown the whistle on everything, it's clear that we would have won. We got to within three points in spite of the referees, and if they'd been good, we would have won, pretty clearly," Reyes said.

"If the referees had followed FIBA rules, we would have won, but we are very satisfied with the silver," Reyes, who scored 10 points, said.

To be fair, Reyes does have a point: the referees were bad. That said, the only thing consistent about the refs was that they made questionable calls on both sides of the ball. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James were in foul trouble for much of the game, but the difference is that when Team USA had to sit someone, they had someone like Dwyane Wade or Deron Williams to take their spot. It was the Redeem Team's depth (and the short international three-point line) that won this game, not the refs.

As the Summer Olympics were passed off from 2008 host Beijing to 2012 host London, Mayor Boris Johnson gave a bizarre, rambling speech in which he said table tennis, the national sport of China, is really a British game:

"I say this respectfully to our Chinese hosts who have excelled magnificently at ping pong," Johnson began. "Ping pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th Century. It was, and it was called whiff whaff."

Johnson wasn't done there.

Olympic wrestler George Gogshelidze of Georgia won a bronze medal in the 96-kilogram freestyle competition, suffering a gruesome eye injury in the process.

Gogshelidze suffered the injury early in the wrestling tournament but continued to wrestle with it. At one point in his match with Kazakhstan's Taimuraz Tigiyev, he even got poked in the other eye, but he still continued to fight on.

Georgia won three medals in the 2008 Olympics: Golds in Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling and judo, and one bronze in shooting and two bronzes in freestyle wrestling.

The 2008 Summer Olympics are in the books, with the closing ceremony taking place in Beijing today.

As part of the closing ceremony, Beijing passed the torch on to the 2012 Olympics host, London, which was represented by England's most famous international athlete, David Beckham.

Beckham arrived aboard a trademark London double-decker bus in front of 91,000 spectators at the Bird's Nest stadium, kicking a soccer ball off the top of the bus and toward the crowd. An eight-minute presentation told the world what to expect from the London 2012 Games.

Although Beckham said he thought Beijing did a good job as Olympics host, he added, "I'm sure we will be better than them, without a doubt."

One of the biggest upsets of the Olympics came in the women's high jump, when Croatia's Blanka Vlasic, one of the most dominant track and field athletes in the world in any event, finished second to Belgium's Tia Hellebaut.

Hellebaut and Vlasic both cleared 2.05 meters, but Hellebaut won because she didn't miss any jumps at that height, while Vlasic failed to clear the bar once before she made it on her second attempt. Russia's Anna Chicherova was third at 2.03 meters.

The 24-year-old Vlasic had won 34 consecutive high jump competitions heading into these Olympics and was considered a huge favorite to bring home the gold. For the 30-year-old Hellebaut, who finished 12th in the 2004 Olympics, to beat her head-to-head represents one of the great achievements of these Games.

Team USA had to work for it -- for three years, and for 40 minutes this morning -- but they earned what they sought: the gold medal. In a ridiculously entertaining match against Spain (a team the United States beat by 37 last week), Team USA pulled out the 11-point victory to grab the tournament victory.

The margin snuck within two points in the final quarter, as Spain relied on a heavy diet of absurd Juan Carlos Navarro floaters and Rudy Fernandez threes to stay within spitting range of the Americans. But Kobe Bryant was just as good, nailing some massive threes and doling out sweet assists. One of the Kobe threes -- shot from the fourth row -- also happened to goad Rudy into his fifth and final foul, adding a bonus to a vital four-point play. Kobe most definitely played up to his billing as the biggest American star in China.

Dwyane Wade was nuts in the first half, dropping 21 points in 14 minutes. (!) He cooled off, which was easily predictable given that he made his bed with threes in the first half and he's not a good deep shooter. LeBron James was ineffective in the second half, picking up his fourth foul early on in the final frame. Carmelo Anthony's shooting was off and on; Chris Paul was good but couldn't stick his threes. Deron Williams didn't get much of a chance on offense. The bigs were active but not overpowering ... in fact, the Brothers Gasol had plenty of space to operate in the paint.

Navarro's stream of floaters won't soon be forgotten, nor will Rudy's insane dunk over Dwight Howard. But Team USA's the story here -- four years after being humbled on the world's stage, American basketball is back on top.

Three years in the making, with plenty of highs and lows in between: Team USA is ready to take its chance at an Olympic gold medal. In the final game, the Americans -- led by LeBron James and Kobe Bryant -- will take on reigning world champion Spain, featuring Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez. Check out our preview and read up on all the analysis from throughout the tournament.

If you're basketball nuts like us, join us at 2:30 a.m. EST/11:30 p.m. PST for a liveblog of the game. BYOB.

The Olympic men's basketball tournament ends tonight, with the gold medal game between the United States and Spain. FanHouse will live blog the show, beginning at 2:30 a.m. EST. Until then, five things to watch for tonight.

Can the Spanish smalls handle it? The Americans have dominated at every position. As Spain enters without its best guard and second-best player overall -- Jose Calderon is out with an injury -- how much more emboldened will Team USA's backcourt be? Chris Paul can cut up the NBA's best, and should have no problem destroying Raul Lopez and Ricky Rubio. Even Jason Kidd, not as a good a player today as Calderon, should be able to roam with freedom. On the other end, relaxing off of Rubio should be the defense of choice -- Ricky is shooting less than 30% for the tournament and has yet to prove he can nail open jumpers.

Will Pau bounce back? Pau Gasol's had a great tournament overall, but didn't do a whole lot of anything against the United States last week. Spain's chances are nil if Pau doesn't go off in a huge way. He -- along with brother Marc and homies Jorge Garbajosa and Jose Reyes -- need to control the boards (plausible) and keep Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh in check (somewhat less plausible) while scoring efficiently and keeping turnovers at a minimum. Tall, tall task.

Team USA needs no confidence boost heading into tomorrow morning's gold medal game against Spain: the Americans have whooped all comers, including the Spaniards. By 37. But the United States gets another chip on its stack nonetheless, as Spain's starting point guard Jose Calderon will apparently not play due to injury. ESPN's Chris Sheridan confirmed the news with Raptors boss Bryan Colangelo ... who has a bit of a history with the Spanish basketball federation. Something tells me Calderon (who just signed a weighty contract with Toronto) won't be pressing the Raps on this.

For Spain, this might put wunderkind jumblebum RIcky Rubio into the starting five. Raul Lopez got the nod to open the semifinal game against Lithuania, but was ineffective. Rubio started the second half. He was also ineffective, though he did a spritely job of frustrating craggly Sarunas Jasikevicius.

Lopez and Rubio are both, at this point, significantly inferior to Calderon and vastly inferior to the American opponents ... even Jason Kidd. (!) Spain needed close to a perfect storm to beat the United States to begin with. Without their top PG, Spain needs a miracle.

Even if you're like me and practically all Americans and you know nothing about handball, you have to admit that this is a thrilling way to end a game:

With one second left and the game tied 28-28, Norway's Gro Hammerseng threw the ball past South Korea's goalie, Lee Min-hee, from about 25 feet away, giving Norway a 29-28 victory.

Or did she? South Korea insists that the goal actually crossed the line after time had expired, and that the game should have gone into overtime. I've looked at the video a few times and think the South Koreans are right, at least if the clock in the upper left corner of the screen is the correct time.

But the International Handball Federation and the International Olympic Committee say the goal will be upheld, and South Korea's protests will be denied. So Norway will play Russia for the gold medal and South Korea will play Hungary for the bronze.