The arrival of the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team at the Main Press Center just hours before the opening ceremony, with almost all of the world’s media now assembled, triggered the largest media pack at a news conference here this week.

The international press corps swarms the USA Basketball squad on Friday.

Hundreds of reporters and photographers mobbed the players, particularly Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. USA Basketball’s Communications Director Craig Miller wisely placed the players in different spots around the large auditorium to decentralize the mayhem.

But attempting to get near either Bryant or James — who were placed on chairs on opposite sides of the auditorium’s stage — was dangerous business as video camera operators from Japan, Italy and China raced from player to player, not mindful of any people or objects in between them.