Hold that thought, will you, guys?

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SHANGHAI -- The U.S. Olympic basketball team, set to address the adoring hordes at its introductory news conference in Beijing on Thursday, just found itself on hold.

With the IOC taking over the team’s 4:30 p.m. time slot (local time), the U.S. was pushed back to Friday morning at 11.

Although no one is complaining for the record, this is irritating for the U.S. team, which has already been on the road for two weeks and two days and had geared its arrival in Beijing to its Thursday news conference.

The U.S. players trained July 20-25 in Las Vegas, flew to San Jose for their Olympic processing, then continued on to Hong Kong to set up in nearby Macao. After six days there, they spent the last four here before Wednesday’s flight to Beijing.

-- Mark Heisler