Team USA absolutely manhandled the Germans on Monday night. You wonder why? It's not hard to figure out. They had Michael Phelps in the crowd.

At the Water Cube last week, American swimmers made it clear that they took notice of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony & Co. in the stands. I went to basketball practice today and players confirmed they definitely took notice of Phelps and his friends in the stands.

I asked Carmelo to put Phelps' eight gold medals in perspective for the average sports fan. He just shook his head from side to side, and kept saying "Man ... eight golds ... oh, man..." He did finally come up with a gem of an answer, but I'll reveal that later.

As for Phelps, he cheered the so-called Redeem Team onto victory and then visited the locker room after the game.

"It's cool," he said. "When we're swimming and we look up and see these guys, it's awesome to see them in the stands. We were all so excited it was like we can't lose in front of these guys, we're not losing a single race in front of these guys. Just being able to sit in here and hang out with these guys, it's cool to sit in here. These are the guys I'm always watching on TV. It's cool to sit in here, hang out and be one of the guys."

And what did he think of the 49-point drubbing of the Germans?

"We destroyed them," he said. "It was a fun game to watch."

OK, OK. One Melo quote. But that's it. Don't get greedy.

"It's good to hopefully have a gold medal," Anthony said, apparently looking into the future for Team USA. "I mean he's got 14 of them. Hopefully, I can bring one back to the city. It's just real good to see somebody else from Baltimore participate in one of the biggest events in the world."

(Photos: Associated Press)