Remember the original Dream Team: Jordan, Bird, Magic, Barkley? Those players were legendary enough not to even bother with first names. They were so dominant, they masked how bad Christian Laettner would turn out to be as an NBA player.
Laettner was the only player on that team without a second of professional basketball in him. It was the first time the United States could take pro players to the Olympics. Back then, just 12 years ago, they made the most of it.
Just imagine the smiles on the faces of the nation’s best players when they found out they could represent their country-and win gold medals quite easily for that matter.
And then the smiles they had at the medal ceremony.
Magic Johnson’s comes to mind. He showed more teeth than all of them because he was given the opportunity to play in the Summer Games less than a year after he had to retire from the game as a result of being HIV positive.
He didn’t have any room to take the Olympics for granted. Apparently, today’s players do. So why aren’t the words “Dream Team” thrown around too much in the summer of 2004? Well, you’d have to toss them pretty far to reach this year’s squad.
Barcelona vs. Athens
What if that 1992 team-the team that easily won the gold in Barcelona-had to deal with 2004 attitudes? What if Chuck Daly had to put up with what Larry Brown has to endure this year?
I dare say it would have sounded something like this (except in Spanish) before each game:
“Starting for Team USA, he’s a 5-foot-3 point guard from the Charlotte Hornets, Tyrone ‘Muggsy’ Bogues!
“And he’s a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from the New York Knicks, John Starks!
“At center, standing at 7 feet, from the Portland Trailblazers, Kevin Duckworth!
“Playing forward, at 6-foot-10, he’s a member of the defending NBA champions, the Chicago Bulls, Horace Grant!
“And coming off his rookie year with the Boston Celtics, a 6-foot-7 small forward, Rick Fox!”
Honestly, it probably wouldn’t be quite like that. I think they use the metric system in Spain.
I wasn’t, however, making an unfair comparison. All of those guys had long, respectable careers, but they certainly weren’t the best of that time.
With the exception of Tim Duncan (and Allen Iverson if we’re nice), the same can be said about each player on the 2004 team.
A little late for should’ves
Even though the best players don’t want to play for their country anymore, the United States still should bring home the gold. It’s still our game.
Besides, Duncan is the best player in the game, and Iverson is one of the most competitive. While lacking legend, the team doesn’t lack skill.
What it needs is an outside shooter.
Remember how the Lithuanian team beat Team USA? They did it by going nuts from beyond the arc, which is much closer to the goal than the NBA’s three-point line.
To our guys, it’s more like a long jumper. Too bad that’s a lost art these days.
Seems like somebody should have considered that when building the team. Just who did pick the players anyway?
In short, selection committee chairman Stu Jackson. There’s got to be somebody else to share the blame, but for now, the finger is pointed his way.
It’s like he just picked up the best available guys regardless of how they could (or couldn’t) help the team.
Why not get Michael Redd or Brent Barry, guys who can shoot lights out from beyond the arc? Why not get Sam Cassell, a veteran who loves to step inside the NBA three-point line and drain a two (which would often be three in the Olympics).
Really, though, why not get guys like Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady and Jason Kidd? According to a Feb. 13 article from the Associated Press, “Allen, Duncan, Kidd, T-Mac officially on squad,” they committed to playing.
See, Michael Jordan popularized the art of sitting out in 1996 when the Games were in nearby Atlanta.
After the 2002 sixth-place debacle, it became fashionable for the best players to say they’d represent their country.
Maybe a 2004 disaster would make it cool to actually follow through on that claim.
Jon Hillard can be reached at jwh117@ msstate.edu.