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When professional American basketball players participated in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, they were called “The Dream Team”.

Now the US basketball team is being named “The RedeemTeam”.

The Americans are hoping to do better in Beijing than in Athens where they received a disappointing bronze medal.

They are doing well so far this year. They won their first two games of the 2008 Olympics against China and Angola.

Words

to redeem: to make up for a bad result or performance.

The best basketball players in the world come from the United States.

However, Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian, is credited with inventing the sport in 1891.

Naismith invented the game for a group of young people to play inside during the cold winters in Springfield, Massachusetts, the town in which he was a teacher at the time.

The first basketball game was played using peach baskets and a ball.

Words

to be credited with: to be responsible for (inventing, making, producing).

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Many American teams are interested in obtaining Chinese basketball player Yi Jianlian.

Yi, plays for the Guangdong Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association or CBA.

Yi is 20 years old and 7 feet tall. His team is now playing in the CBA finals against the Bayi Rockets.

Although his team lost its last game, Yi was able to score 24 points.

Chinese basketball star Yao Ming already plays in the United States for the Houston Rockets.