Thursday, August 26
Dream Team no longer feared, respected
ATHENS, Greece - And now, let's move in closer to where two basketball coaches - American Larry Brown and Spain's Mario Pesquera - are talking after Thursday's quarterfinal game, and possibly listen to some of their conversation about the true Olympic spirit.
Brown seems to be asking his respected colleague a question.
``You want some of me?''
Well, never mind.
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Ah, for the good old days. When the Dream Teamers came to the Olympics to be held in awe, reverence, and adulation. And that was by the competition, who did everything but hold the limo doors open for them.
It was clear in multiple languages Thursday how times have changed. Now the NBA Americans are as popular as a computer virus.
Now they hear boos and whistles, like other Yanks. Now the other coach is not thrilled to play them, but angry if he loses to them.
That crackling sound you hear is Pesquera, deep frying over the officiating, the 102-94 U.S. victory - and Brown, for calling a timeout with 23.9 seconds left and the score 101-90.
``I am tired of people always assuming the strongest team is the NBA,'' Pesquera said. ``I think we were the stronger team. It's about time we told the truth on this.''
His laundry list of complaints ranged from sensible to silly. In the end, he was a basketball coach who had just lost a tough game and medal chance.
Brown said he had alerted the scorer's table he wanted a timeout at the next opportunity - per international basketball rules - when the lead was down to eight points. When the timeout was actually called, the lead was 11.
Pesquera took it as an insult, and said Brown should have just waved his players back on the floor.
What's Spanish for much ado about nothing? But it led to a post-game showdown in two languages.
``It was like a disagreement with my son,'' Brown said. ```Sometimes he doesn't let you explain. So I tried to explain. He didn't want to hear it. I don't know if he understood. I know he went to North Carolina, and watched practice at Kansas. So he had to understand something.
``I tried to apologize. I tried to explain. And he kept saying something about the NBA.''
Pesquera suggested later he had lost respect for Brown, then amended it to mean he still respected Brown's coaching. But he knew where to put in the knife.
``To me,'' Pesquera said, ``a trainer who is up there with the best, like Dean Smith, would never have done anything like that.''
Pesquera also complained the game had been called like an NBA game - even if the officials were from Mexico and Australia.
He charged the Americans traveled all day. Especially Allen Iverson. But that doesn't make him different than any Boston Celtic fan.
The boos aimed at U.S. athletes are hard to gauge. They seemed blatantly anti-American at boxing. Basketball may have had more to do with the perception of Dream Team superiority, which is long gone, anyway.
``I think we've won so much. And I think there's some times we haven't acted the best,'' Brown said. ``I would hope they would cheer for the underdog. They do it in our country. They even cheered for Detroit.''
``That might be one reason,'' said Pau Gasol, who sees both sides, as an NBA player with Memphis, and the heart of Spain's team, who scored 29 points Thursday. ``The other reason is the image that they show, kind of how they act, how they've been playing. Everybody wants to kick them out of the tournament. I'm talking about fans and teams.''
And once, all they wanted to do was get their pictures taken with Michael Jordan.
It's a new world order. Dream Team coach Chuck Daly never got into trouble with timeouts, either. But then, he never needed to call any.
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