NBC's Huge Gamble Pays Off With Stirring Olympic Telecasts

Love: Your comments on the voyeur shower scenes. And what makes the diving pool that much more "contaminated" than other pools, that they have to shower off right away? You'd think it was Chernobyl water. And what's with those silly little towels the divers carry around? (Actually, they're shammy cloths used for a quick dry.)

Hate: The complete disregard of Lolo Jones's wipeout by the first- and third-place winners after the race. Didn't look nice.

Love: The under-appreciated U.S. women's basketball team. When Larry Brown led the Detroit Pistons to his only NBA title (the same year he led Team USA to a bronze medal in men's basketball) he talked of "playing the right way." These ladies did. They rebounded, made the extra pass, scored from the perimeter and in the paint and didn't miss layups. It was a free-flowing game that also featured a changing of the guard. "Golden Girls" Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson seem ready to step aside as Candace Parker and Sylvia Fowles appear ready to step up and lead the U.S. women to another four or five consecutive Olympic championships.

Hate: The "Redeem Team" mantra for the U.S. men's basketball team. Another overbearing catch phrase from the bastion of moronic (ESPN) lexicon in Bristol, Conn. Much like the sickening "street cred" term, enough already. How about applying that term to the producers of SportsCenter these days!

Love: The underwater camera showing Phelps edging out a gold medal win in the butterfly by 0.01 seconds.

Hate: A poolside interviewer asking Phelps's relay teammates how they felt about helping HIM win another gold.

Love: The graceful lines of Nastia Liukin.

Hate: The gymnastic tiebreaker.

Love: The "side stories" about China, the culture and its people; I find them very interesting and educational.

Hate: Mary Carillo reporting them!

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at Len.Shapiro@washingtonpost.com