It was hard to go far in New York today without seeing, or feeling, reminders of 9/11. A short lunchtime walk in Midtown confirmed that. Outside our office building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a crowd stood as members of the New York Police Department band played a medley of patriotic songs, their enthusiasm invoking the perseverance of a city and its people.

During a pause, the sound of bagpipes drifted over from outside St. Patrick's Cathedral half a block away, where a 9/11 service had just ended. The day was clear and bright, just like on that day five years ago.

I was reminded of something else that happened in this city on 9/11 and especially the days that followed. New York became an especially kind and civil place, as friends and colleagues and even strangers looked after one another. The city might have been showing

New York City firefighters from the 3rd Battalion attend
a Mass Monday at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
(AP Photo/Shiho Fukada)

a little of that again today as the pace of things seemed a bit slower, a bit more gentle. Over at Park Avenue and 51st Street, a fire truck from Engine Company 65 was parked on the corner, the firefighters inside pausing for a few minutes and looking out at the pedestrian traffic. As I passed by, one of them nodded. I nodded back, feeling proud.

Brian anchors the broadcast from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan tonight. Our camera caught him in his office for a preview of tonight's 9/11 coverage. Click the link to the right (below the advertisement) to watch.

And if you haven't seen it yet, Brian wrote an essay for MSNBC.com reflecting on 9/11. You can read it here. And you can find all of our anniversary coverage -- stories, videos, photos -- at September11.MSNBC.com.

We heard the sounds of silence today, 9/11/2006, on the White House South Lawn... a marked contrast to the cacophony here five years ago. On that day, cooks, policy makers and grounds keepers were streaming away from the White House as fast as possible because they knew that the evacuation was for real. Not only had two planes crashed into the World Trade Center, but another had hit the Pentagon... and there were rumors that a fourth was heading for Washington and the White House might be the target.

For those of us at the White House that day who remember every millisecond of what occurred, today's dreary Monday in Washington has a special poignancy. In 2001, as we moved with warp speed off the White House grounds, I looked airborne and above the White House no higher than a couple of thousand feet was an unmarked 747 jumbo jet making lazy circles. Many of us on the ground feared the worst; that this might be another plane ready to attack, but it turned out it was an Air Force command and control plane sent into the sky to monitor conditions.

We were quickly ushered into the streets. Trying to cover the story -- becoming a part of the chaotic scene -- was like something right out of a science fiction movie. In the midst of the madness, I ran into a close friend who was a reporter for Knight Ridder. We embraced, talked about our sons and for a moment forgot that we were journalists and remembered we were soccer dads with families.

Other vivid memories of that day five years ago: An angry crowd's confrontation with a bicycle courier who was praising the attacks; walking for blocks from a temporary press operation to yet another set up a distance away at FBI headquarters. By then the streets were empty -- nothing except for an occasional wisp of wind blowing paper down the middle of the street. By evening, with President Bush back in Washington, we were allowed back inside the White House. As we waited for the president to speak, there was a press briefing in the office of Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. I peered out a side door and saw an ashen-faced Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta talking on the telephone. He had already ordered all commercial air traffic grounded.

Today,  Vice President Dick Cheney, along with current and former cabinet officials who were here five years ago, stood together with heads bowed in silence as Taps were played by a lone Marine bugler. Like a perfect coda to the bugler, the next sound we heard was a commercial jet flying from nearby Reagan National Airport through the low clouds to some distant location -- a reminder that as we seek normalcy in the post 9/11 world, the very word normalcy means something far different than it did five years ago.

We have just arrived at our workspace 10 floors above Ground Zero, as we prepare to broadcast Nightly News tonight from lower Manhattan on the eve of the 5th anniversary of 9/11.  This afternoon the President and the First Lady will come here to remember those who died.  Journalists from all over the world are here to cover this story. 

It's difficult to convey the emotions that emerge when you look out over this place.  I get this strange, uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.  It reminds us all of what we felt that day 5 years ago.  I remember watching from 30 blocks away... as the 2nd tower collapsed... what I saw... what I heard... and the tears we all shed as we stood in the street.

In tonight's broadcast we'll have the latest on the President's visit to Ground Zero this afternoon.  NBC's David Gregory will have that story.  Dana Priest of the Washington Post will have more on her front-page story this morning that says the hunt for Bin Laden has gone "stone cold."

NBC's Pat Dawson give us a unique view of Ground Zero... and how it has become a place that continues to draw Americans who come here to pay their respects.  NBC's Rehema Ellis looks at how things have changed 5 years later.  And NBC's Jim Maceda has the view from overseas on how the U.S. is viewed by Arabs around the world.

Those are just some of the stories we are covering on this special broadcast of NBC Nightly News…  We hope you'll join us.

One of the great things about working here is the people you run into in the hallways. Often it's an SNL guest host, a few weeks back it was Bill Clinton. Today it was the great David Hume Kennerly, former White House photographer for President Ford, and among the very best photographers alive today.  David recently spent time with former Presidents Ford and Bush, and offered an update on each. His iconic photo of Anwar Sadat hangs, signed and inscribed, along our central hallway outside our newsroom.

To the news on this Friday night: a lot of it has to do with lessons learned (or not) since 9/11, and who was responsible for what... no matter who the U.S. chose to go after. Lisa Myers, David Gregory and Tim Russert (who has Vice President Cheney on Meet the Press this weekend) will help us sort it out.  We'll report on the cable news story of the day, the fugitive in Upstate New York... and since it's Friday night: our Making a Difference report.

A final thought: I've been late to the game on the subject of computers. I'm not terribly computer literate -- while I am a BlackBerry addict, and can handle e-mail and the Web -- attachments are a challenge, photos are impossible. But last night I finally realized what these things are for. I finally discovered the full potential of a computer. Last night I saw the most beautiful picture I've ever seen beamed onto a computer screen. It was a live picture of my daughter, in her college dorm room, via Webcam. 

Suddenly, all was right with the world.

I wish we could say the same about the world we will bring you tonight. We will do our best, however. I hope you can join us. Have a safe and happy weekend.

Brian anchors  tonight, but Chief White House Correspondent David Gregory is on Early Nightly duty, giving you a preview of the stories we're working on. Click the link to the right (below the advertisement) to watch.

I don't have much good news for this space today. In fact, I must open with some caveats: if you watched my Early Nightly video blog... you should know that very little of what I said we were working on for this evening's broadcast will make it to air. The day has changed... and so our world has changed. Also, to our friends in the Pacific time zone: you won't be seeing us tonight, due to NBC Sports coverage of the NFL. We're very happy that our network has the rights to football again, but... since we have the rights to news, this is not our favorite night of the week. People in those time zones WILL be able to find our broadcast on the Internet (at the hour when it would normally air on television). My apologies. 

This will be abbreviated, as most of my afternoon was spent in a New York City firehouse for a special segment we are airing tonight... on three extraordinary young men. More on that in a moment.

The release of this new al-Qaida "training video" obviously changed the news agenda for us (and for all) today, and we'll have full analysis of what the pictures, and their release, may tell us. We'll stay on the Gitmo story and we'll have a report on my favorite story of the day: the Blair-Brown feud in the U.K. Even the coverage in the normally-staid Guardian (by British standards) read like a Hollywood script today.

We'll look at the outrage over a movie project, not yet released, and we'll have my report on the wounds of 9/11. It is always a setback visiting Ground Zero -- and today was no exception. The firehouse I visited, Ladder 10/Engine 10 (New York's famous "Ten

House") is 200 yards from the footprint of the South Tower. I must admit that when I got back to my office in Midtown, and heard a commercial jetliner (an unusual sound over the city since 9/11, so this one must have been a diversion from LaGuardia), I went to my window. All I saw was a sunny day around the famous skating rink... all was well. Let's hope it always stays that way.

My thanks to Captain Engel and the great firefighters I met at the Ten House today. It's my favorite environment to visit -- in part because they are never overly impressed with TV people -- because they know they already have the greatest jobs in the world.

We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

Photo caption: Brian talks with FDNY firefighters (left to right) Matthew Ryan Jr., Christopher Ganci, James Dowdell. Photo by NBC's Daniel Linden.

Editor's note: The NBC NIghtly News Netcast will be available at 5:30 p.m. PT tonight for viewers on the West Coast. Visit Nightly.MSNBC.com and click "Thurs" in the box on the right side to watch.

U.S. officials say that we should expect a series of tapes this week from al-Qaida, leading up to a message, probably from Osama bin Laden himself, just before the anniversary.

Citing analysis rather than intelligence, the officials say that today's tape followed by four days the Ayman al-Zawahri/Adam Gadahn tape on Saturday. "It's a logical progression from this to a message on or just before the anniversary," said one official. 

Either Bin Laden or Zawahri has posted a message on or just before every anniversary since 2002 and with this being the fifth anniversary, we should expect more, said the official.

Today's tape is the most elaborate since the first anniversary, when the al-Qaida production company, al-Shahab, released video of the 9/11 plotters going over airline schedules prior to the attacks.

Another official noted the tapes are directed primarily at the U.S. audience, not an Islamic audience, noting the use of Gadahn, an American, on the weekend tape and the use of English subtitles in today's tape.

Justice Department officials confirm that an American citizen who joined al-Qaida and has appeared in al-Qaida videos has been charged with supporting terrorism. The charges, in an indictment filed under seal, will be made public in a few days and could include treason.

The American, Adam Pearlman, was born in California and grew up in Orange County. He converted to Islam as a teenager, eventually changing his name to Adam Gadahn. He has so far appeared in four al-Qaida videos. In the most recent, on the Internet last weekend, he was introduced by Ayman Al-Zawahri, who said that Pearlman/Gadahn wants to lead his people "out of darkness into the light."

The charges, of material support for terrorism, were filed under seal a few months ago in Los Angeles, based on his connections to the area. But some prosecutors believe he should be charged with treason, which could result in the death penalty. No final decision has been made, Justice officials say.

Charges of treason -- the most serious crime that can be committed against the United States -- are seldom brought, and there have been few cases of it since the 1950s. The government briefly considered bringing treason charges against John Walker Lindh, the American who joined the Taliban, but decided against it.

The debate is raging following President Bush's admission yesterday that terrorist suspects have been interrogated at secret CIA prisons around the world. Plus, what's this about a dress code at the White House? Those are two of the stories Brian mentions in today's vlog. Click the link to the right (below the advertisement) to watch.

Just a note to let you know that we've launched a new blog in the mold of The Daily Nightly. First Read has been around for years now, but it's got a brand new bloggy look. NBC's Political Unit will do most of the heavy lifting, but you'll also get daily dispatches from NBC correspondents and producers covering politics and the campaign trail as Decision 2006 heats up. I'll continue to post political stuff here in The Daily Nightly when it relates to stories we're working on for the broadcast.

We are reporting on medical stories tonight and as always when possible we want to provide you the original sources so you can study them in detail if you wish.

The first is the discovery of two chemicals that appear in a pregnant woman's body months before the condition called preeclampsia, or toxemia, sets in. The condition is a major cause of premature births and the finding should soon give doctors a test so they can initiate treatment as early as possible. You can read the study here.

We also make reference to what is called the "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer." This is a joint effort of the American Cancer Society and the federal government to show the trends in the incidence and death rates for all sorts of cancer. The big news this year is that the breast cancer rate, which has been increasing steadily, seems to have leveled off. There is an enormous amount of data in this report. You can read summaries and find links to the full report and related sites here.

Did President Bush just turn a Supreme Court decision (and a defeat of his earlier position) into a virtue? Fourteen bad guys (some of them among the worst citizens on the planet) now have new homes (cells) in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The president promised today to treat them with the "humanity that they denied others." Tonight we'll talk about today's event at the White House, and the underlying decision by the administration, including interrogation techniques. In deciding to give today's speech, the president disclosed the existence of once-secret CIA prisons (while the investigation continues into the leak of their existence in the first place) and Congress now gets the next move. The East Room event was part of the president's series of speeches embracing the war on terrorism -- running with it, actually -- as the dominant issue in the upcoming mid-term elections. This morning on Imus, Craig Crawford warned the Democratic party -- snake-bitten in its last two attempts to gain the White House -- against over-confidence. Nine interesting weeks to go. We'll have complete coverage of this intersection of politics and national security tonight.

Also this evening: Lisa Myers continues her investigation into the RPG defense system, Bob Bazell on health news today... and we'll check into the Montana fires that have some of my friends out there on the run and worried. We'll also check in on the story that has received so much attention across Europe.

We hope you'll join us for our Wednesday night edition of the broadcast.

We expect Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tenn., to offer the White House legislation on military commissions later today on the Senate floor. But what happens from there is unclear. Some key Senate Republicans don't endorse some portions of the administration's approach. 

The Senate Armed Services Committee, headed by John Warner, R-Va., has been working on its own version of a bill on military commissions. Warner and fellow committee Republicans Sens. John McCain, Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, S.C., along with the committee Democrats, have been at odds with the administration on the best way to move forward from the beginning. In overly simplistic terms, a majority of the committee seeks more protections and rights for detainees during trials. The administration seeks more restrictions for detainees and leans more toward the process that was in place before the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional.

According to people familiar with the ongoing talks, the differences center around some of these points:
-- the definition of coercion and whether information obtained through coercion could be used in trial
-- whether a detainee or his lawyers can have access to classified information
-- whether hearsay evidence is admissible
-- and if convicted, do the appeals go to a military court or the D.C. Circuit Court?

The Senate version of the bill is a work in progress. But the people to watch in the next couple of weeks are Frist (who will determine which bill will make its way to the floor for debate and amending); and Warner, McCain and Graham. They stood toe-to-toe with Vice President Dick Cheney last year and won a battle that got the administration to embrace the detainee treatment act.

Brian anchors the broadcast from New York tonight and offers his daily preview of the stories under consideration. Click the link to the right (below the advertisement) to watch.

Editor's note: Kelly posted the following in our sister blog, First Read, but since Nightly News will cover the story extensively tonight, I'm posting it here as well.

More White House build-up to President Bush's third speech on the war on terror at 1:30 p.m.: Senior Bush advisors say the speech and the accompanying proposal to correct the military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees, which the U.S. Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional back in June, will generate an "enormous amount of news."  When asked by the press corps if they're raising expectations, White House spokesperson Tony Snow responded, "We're gonna deliver today," and, "Trust me, it's better than you think."  However, he would not provide any further guidance on the "enormous amount of news" of the speech.  Hill lawmakers will be briefed before the speech today.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - You've got to feel sorry for NASA's engineers and mission managers who are struggling to meet a very ambitious space shuttle launch schedule, yet once again find themselves bedeviled by setbacks.

Today, it's a problem with one of three fuel cell motors on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis that has scrubbed the launch set for 12:29 p.m. The fuel cells are critical, since they provide electrical power to the shuttle while it's in orbit. In addition, they produce drinkable water for the crew.

When engineers tested the system last night, they discovered a voltage spike from a motor winding or the power feed on the left side coolant loop. They're now trying to chase down the problem, hoping to isolate it in time to launch Atlantis and its cargo: a massive addition to the International Space Station.

The trouble is -- there isn't much time to do that. The launch window for the 116th space shuttle mission expires on Friday.  After that, the Russians are slated to launch a mission to deliver a new crew to the Space Station.

This is just the most recent setback for NASA and the Atlantis crew that has trained for more than four years for this mission. Mission managers first scrubbed the launch August 26 when lightning hit the launch pad. Then the threat of Tropical Storm Ernesto forced NASA to take Atlantis off the pad and roll it back to the protection of the Vehicle Assembly Building. 

That decision was supposed to have eliminated any chance of a September launch, because of the time it takes to prep a shuttle once it's back on the pad. But half-way through the roll-back, weather forecasters changed their predictions for Ernesto's direction and strength. NASA quickly did an about-face and rolled Atlantis back to the pad.  Now, this delay.

NASA could delay the launch attempt until October, but that's only a two-day window. And it has yet another mission slated for the end of the year. 

The time line is tight, because NASA must fly 15 or 16 missions by this time in 2010 in order to finish the International Space Station. The president has ordered, and Congress has agreed, to ground the shuttle fleet at that point, allowing NASA to  concentrate on its next mission: Returning to the moon.

While the shuttle is the most complex machine ever built -- with 2 million parts and 230 miles of wiring -- NASA administrator Michael Griffin has said the design is fatally flawed, since it allows for debris to fall off the External Fuel Tank and hit the orbiter. That's precisely what brought down Columbia in 2003, killing the crew of seven.

Yet, the shuttle is also the only vehicle that can transport the huge components to the International Space Station. And the U.S. has international agreements to use the shuttle to finish building the ISS.

So, Atlantis remains on launch pad 39-B with engineers scrambling to fix a problem with a 260-pound fuel cell.... with the mission, and the entire shuttle timeline on hold.

Americans were divided into two groups this morning when they heard of the massive oil discovery off the U.S. coastline. Some cheered the news, while others bemoaned the development as a disincentive to breaking our nation's "addiction" to oil. Tonight we'll look at what it means. Also tonight, what we're learning about the health of those who stood vigil and worked so hard at (or simply lived near) the World Trade Center. We'll look at President Bush's speech today (another outgrowth of 9/11) and examine the administration's tactical plan heading into the coming elections. We all noted that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's office chose to announce his "secret" arthroscopic rotator cuff surgery while the president was still at the podium... forcing MSNBC to make an on-screen announcement of the surgery before the president had concluded.

Tim Russert will join us tonight for political analysis.

We will round out the broadcast with an NBC News Investigation, and our look at a fading slice of Americana.

SHOUT-OUTS AND MURMURS
To the e-mailer who recommended double-sided tape as an essential bring-along element in moving a freshman into college: thank you. It was indispensable. To all those who wrote me with sentimental good wishes of your own: thank you. It means a lot.

A birthday greeting to the online chronicler of our industry: TVNewser editor Brian Stelter is now old enough to drink. He's been old enough to blog for several years.

Additionally tonight: I welcome a friend and former colleague, Katie Couric, to the evening news fold. Bob Schieffer and I had a nice chat last Thursday (prior to his last broadcast) and the tribute to him was touching. I'm happy for Bob that he can now take a victory lap in Washington, where he remains a fierce competitor each week on Face The Nation.

We hope you can join us tonight for our Tuesday broadcast.

Brian is back in the anchor chair tonight. He begins today's vlog by answering a few viewers' questions and then gives you an early look at what we're preparing for the broadcast.

Click the link to the right (below the advertisement) to watch.

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Just a few weeks ago, I was on vacation swimming in the Pacific ocean. In the water just a  few feet from shore, and a few feet from me, was a stingray. I shouted to some of the kids on the beach to come and look. One couple grabbed a camera. But none of us thought for a second that this could be a deadly animal. So I was truly stunned this morning to hear how Steve Irwin had died. Most people know him as television's "Crocodile Hunter." The 44-year-old animal lover and wildlife preservationist was shooting a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef when a stingray struck him in the chest and pierced his heart.  Australia's prime minister said today it is a huge loss for his country. We will have all the details tonight.

Then to politics. Labor Day weekend is traditionally when campaigns kick into high gear. This year the war in Iraq is the major factor likely to shape the new Congress. The latest polls and political analysis point to Democrats retaking the House by possibly more than the 15 seats they need. It is looking more like these midterm elections are a referendum on President Bush -- with his low poll numbers taking a toll on Republicans. The White House is pushing back, though, with an aggressive strategy to make national security the primary theme. But it looks like Iraq will remains the focus with more Democrats and some Republicans calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign. We will have two reports tonight.

Also tonight our series "Whose America?" -- not enough migrant workers to pick fruits and vegetables because of the crackdown on illegal immigration; Baby boomers retrofitting their homes for retirement -- it's big business; and fewer people are making it an annual outing -- is this the end of the State Fair?

See you tonight.

Sorry for the late notification ... Campbell Brown is in the anchor chair tonight and gives you a preview of the stories they are preparing for broadcast. Click the link to the right (below the advertisement) to watch.

We begin tonight with a story that has been unfolding throughout the day.  An American from California appeared today in a video from Al Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahri.  The American on the tape is Adam Gadah who is wanted by the FBI. This tape is called an "Invitation to Islam" and it runs 48 minutes.  We'll find out more about the tape… another story today ... the arrest of 16 people in London in connection with a terror plot investigation.  NBC's Chief Investigative Correspondent will have the latest on the tape... NBC's Ned Colt the story of the arrests from London.

We are following developments in Iraq today.  As the Pentagon warns that Iraq could be headed for a civil war, there was more bloodshed.  NBC's Mike Boettcher has the story.

What's left of Ernesto is dumping rain in the east... and John is the culprit out west.  Tonight we have the latest on both storms.

Plus, why Americans aren't able to find the time to take time off for vacation these days.

Those are some of the stories we are following tonight.  We hope you'll join us.

Coming up tonight on the broadcast: Tracking two storms. Ernesto came ashore as a tropical storm and has now been downgraded to a tropical depression. It is dumping a ton of rain on the East Coast. States of emergency have been declared for North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The storm has caused massive power outages and flooding with more rain expected as Ernesto heads north. In Mexico on the Baja Peninsula, they are waiting for Hurricane John, which is due to make landfall as early as 8 p.m. with winds over 100 miles-per-hour. Villages are being evacuated while tourists are hunkered down in hotel shelters. We will have the very latest on both storms tonight.

Also tonight, a new report assessing the situation in Iraq. It's the Pentagon's quarterly report to Congress and the news is pretty bleak. The headline is that sectarian violence is spreading beyond Baghdad and that Iran and Syria are fostering much of the violence. Death squads, the report says, are increasingly targeting civilians. The report covers the time that new Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki has been in power. We will have a full breakdown.

Finally a report tonight on lower gas prices -- a worthy story as so many of us are hitting the road this weekend. We'll also look at Katrina victims who have decided not to go home and are building new lives in new places. And since it is Friday, a segment from our good-news series, Making a Difference. See you tonight.

Campbell Brown is filling in today for Brian as he takes his daughter to college. Click the link to the right (below the advertisement) to watch what's in store for tonight's broadcast.

And from all of us here at Nightly News, have a very happy and safe Labor Day weekend.

The basketball boards around the Internet are buzzing today with anger and confusion. American fans are in a deep funk about the U.S. loss to Greece in the semifinals. "Greece!" they say. "Greece? They don't play basketball in GREECE!"

Oh yes, they do.

Greece is the reigning European champion and their teams in the Euroleague -- world's second-best professional league after the NBA -- are always among the top five.

But the posters and bloggers analyzing and criticizing are all in denial, if you ask me.

Team USA finished sixth in the worlds in Indianapolis in 2002; third in the Olympics in Athens in 2004; and probably fourth in the worlds in Tokyo in 2006. What is it about the end of U.S. dominance in basketball that you don't understand?

The U.S. produces the best individual players (for now), but they cannot play team basketball as well as the Europeans. Or the South Americans!  The 2002 team had George Karl as coach, the 2004 team had Larry Brown, the 2006 team has Mike Krzyzewksi. Those are among the best coaches in U.S. hoops history. They and the players are simply not good enough and one reason may be that the players think they can rely on their raw athleticism and reputation. They can't. Not anymore. 

This is not the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. This is not about whether LeBron James holds the ball too long either, or that Chris Paul never played in a big game before in his life, both of which may be true but are irrelevant. This is about the world catching and passing the U.S. in the elements of the game that count the most: TEAM play on both sides of the ball, fundamentals, outside shooting to complement the inside game. And coaching.

My favorite line delivered by those most in denial -- and ignorance -- is: "Well, they couldn't beat the NBA Champs! We should send the NBA champs every year!" The problem is that, increasingly, the NBA champs are dependent on international players. The Heat didn't have any significant international players this year but the most successful NBA franchise over the past decade has been the San Antonio Spurs, winning in 1999, 2003, and 2005.
The Spurs' point guard is from France -- Tony Parker. Their shooting guard is from Argentina -- Manu Ginobili, and their best player and power forward, Tim Duncan, may have played his college ball at Wake Forest, but he learned the game in his native Virgin Islands, not a hotbed of b-ball. 

The Suns' Steve Nash of Canada, Boris Diaw of France, Leandro Barbosa of Brazil, and Raja Bell of the Virgin Islands all averaged 14 points a game this year or better -- and their training camp this year will be held in Treviso, Italy!

The Mavs would be nothing without Dirk Nowitzki of Germany. Role players like Desagana Diop of Senegal are also critical to the Dallas success. For most of last year, Mark Cuban had players from Senegal, Russia, Germany, Guyana, and Congo on his payroll.

The Nets, who had the first international superstar in Drazen Petrovic of Croatia, didn't have an international player for years after his death. They now have three -- a starter, Nenad Krstic, a bench player, Bostjan Nachbar, and a rookie, Mile Ilic -- all from the Balkans.   They have an international scouting director who is Dutch and has spent the last two weeks in northern Nigeria scouting teenagers!

And we haven't even mentioned China yet. A nation with 500 million self-professed basketball fans -- which some months produces more revenue for the NBA than the U.S. -- has only one player in the NBA. How long will that last? You think it's impossible that sometime in the next 30 years that the NBA commissioner will speak Mandarin--and carry a Chinese passport? I wouldn't bet on it.   

This year, one out of every five NBA players held a foreign passport. By 2010, the next world championship, the number will be one out of three if trends continue. Be prepared for more surprises as time passes. 

It's not about "fixing" Team USA to assure U.S. dominance of the game invented in Springfield, Mass. (by a Canadian).  It's about understanding that the world loves the game and embracing it.