From Underrated Greatness in Atlanta to the Gap Closed in Athens
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13 from underrated greatness in atlanta to the gap closed in athens During the 1996 Olympic Games, at which an underrated Dream Team II turned in an overwhelming performance, Michael Jordan visited to watch basketball and endorse a designer line of underwear. While in Atlanta, he predicted it would take ten years for the rest of the world to compete with the United States in hoops. Many thought his timeline too generous to international teams, but Charles Barkley, who played on Dream Team II, made similar statements in Atlanta. Barkley said that in 2000 the United States would likely fare well, but that by 2004, “we could be in trouble.”1 As had the longtime Soviet coach Alexander Gomelsky and Bill Walton, both Jordan and Barkley recognized that the quality of the international game was improving, and both men’s prognostications about Olympic basketball would prove prescient. Th is was partly because as the Dream Team helped lengthen basketball’s international reach, the quality of the international game improved. Th ough in Atlanta the second Olympic version of the Dream Team Copyright © 2010. UNP - Nebraska. All rights reserved. UNP - Nebraska. Copyright © 2010. Cunningham, C. (2010). American hoops : U.s. men's olympic basketball from berlin to beijing. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a> Created from unlv on 2021-07-22 18:51:50. won big, in relatively short order, international teams, such as Lithuania and Argentina—with their well - run off enses featuring fi ne passing, strong shooting, and versatility—did indeed close the gap with the United States. Th is, in turn, placed pressure on America to reemphasize the team game. And so, into the new millennium, teamwork and individuality continued their delicate coexistence, while the Dream Team’s legacy became that of integration rather than domination. A simple analysis of the statistics turned in by the disappointing bronze - medal U.S. team at the 2004 Athens Games indicates why America came to reevaluate its basketball ways. Consider two particularly troubling categories: shooting percentage and assists (which oft en directly correlate to the ability of a team to play together). In 2004 the U.S. team made 40 of 144 shots from the three - point line for a 31.4 percent average (no player among the nba’s top seventy - fi ve three - point shooters was on the 2004 U.S. team’s roster). By comparison, in 2000 the U.S. team made 54 of 128 three - pointers for a 42 percent average. In 1996 the United States shot 40 percent from the three. As for assists, the 2004 team totaled 121, to the 2000 version’s 153. Com- paring the 2004 team’s 121 assists with those of the 1996 and 1992 squads is even more striking. In 1996 the United States compiled 210 assists, while the original Dream Team dished out 239, almost exactly doubling the 2004 total. Dream Team II’s assists total hints at its spectacular abilities. However, those abilities oft en went underappreciated because, while the popularity of Dream Team I accelerated the diff usion of hoops across the planet, in America, it would prove a hard act to follow. Almost immediately aft er Barcelona, this seemed apparent as people argued that, since the origi- nal Dream Team had successfully staked the United States’ claim as the undisputed basketball superpower, the usoc should revert back to lett ing collegians compete. Leroy Walker, a leading candidate to become the next president of the usoc, did not call for a complete reversion to college play- ers, but he did say he wanted a more open selection process with a balance of collegians and professionals. Walker emphasized that his comments were not directed at professionalism, which he considered an Olympic reality he had already accepted, but rather at the way players earned selection.2 Regardless, his position surely met resistance from David Stern and other Copyright © 2010. UNP - Nebraska. All rights reserved. UNP - Nebraska. Copyright © 2010. gap closed in athens 351 Cunningham, C. (2010). American hoops : U.s. men's olympic basketball from berlin to beijing. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a> Created from unlv on 2021-07-22 18:51:50. nba brass, who did not want to surrender their newfound opportunity to showcase their stars on the Olympics’ international stage. In the end, the nba kept its strong Olympic presence. Five original Dream Team members—Barkley, Malone, Pippen, Rob- inson, and Stockton—played in the Atlanta Games. Th ey were joined by the Orlando Magic’s versatile, six - feet - seven - inch Anfernee Hardaway and seven - feet - one - inch, 301 - pound center Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal; the Detroit Pistons’ six - feet - eight - inch Grant Hill; the Indiana Pacers’ sharpshooting, six - feet - seven - inch Reggie Miller; the Houston Rockets’ seven - feet Hakeem Olajuwon; the Seatt le Supersonics’ six - feet - four - inch Gary Payton (Payton replaced the Milwaukee Bucks’ Glenn Robinson, who left the team because of achilles tendinitis in late June); and the Sacra- mento Kings’ six - feet - fi ve - inch jump - shot artist Mitch Richmond.3 With eight players over the age of thirty, Dream Team II was slightly older than the Barcelona version. And the squad, coached by the African American Lenny Wilkens, counted eleven black players among its twelve - man roster, demonstrating that the days of unspoken racial balance were long gone. Upon announcing the selection of the widely respected Atlanta Hawks’ coach as head man for the U.S. men’s Olympic team, C. M. Newton, the president of USA Basketball, described Wilkens as a “genuinely great human being.”4 Out of Brooklyn, New York, and a former star at Provi- dence, Wilkens became the nba’s all - time winningest coach in 1995 and in 1997 would get named among the nba’s top fi fty players of all time. He and John Wooden were the fi rst two men to get elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame both as a player and a coach. Not bad for a guy who only played one half - season of high school basketball, helped support his family as a teenager with jobs like pouring concrete (his father passed away when Wilkens was fi ve years old), and did not see an nba game until aft er he was draft ed into the league. Although he was known as a players’ coach with a mild air, Wilkens thought this label led folks to overlook elements of his coaching, and that at times, race might have played a factor in the characterization. “People assumed John Wooden was laid - back, too. How can you be laid - back and win as many games as we did? My players know diff erently,” he said in 1998 just before his induction ceremony into the hall of fame. Wilkens’s rise as an nba coach started in the late 1960s, and he remained Copyright © 2010. UNP - Nebraska. All rights reserved. UNP - Nebraska. Copyright © 2010. 352 gap closed in athens Cunningham, C. (2010). American hoops : U.s. men's olympic basketball from berlin to beijing. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a> Created from unlv on 2021-07-22 18:51:50. in the business even though there were few jobs for African Americans during much of his career. Wilkens said his early success helped him stay on amid a less - accepting att itude towards black coaches, as did his reso- lution that he “wasn’t going to be denied.” Th is att itude refl ected the grit behind his gentle manner. Still, the economic and political enthusiast did have a thoughtful, gentle way about him. And this made him likable to plenty of players.5 Gett ing the opportunity to coach the U.S. Olympic team moved him deeply. He also did not want to lose. He wanted gold for his country, he thought his team had the best talent, and he also wanted to show that an African American coach could win gold. Without Bird, Magic Johnson, and Jordan, who apparently told Wilkens he would have played had he “thought you really needed me,” Wilkens thought his job was going to be tougher. Yet he knew he had depth. In fact, in an eff ort to show that he thought his roster was strong from top to bott om, Wilkens never started the same fi ve players twice in the Olympics. Wilkens was concerned, though, as was USA Basketball, about the negative press that the 1994 U.S. team at the World Championships in Toronto had received. A glaring example of the criticized behavior was the time the Seatt le Supersonics’ Shawn Kemp swung from the rim while grabbing his crotch aft er a slam dunk. So Wilkens emphasized to the players that they should conduct themselves with humility.6 Th e 1996 U.S. men’s team had two dominating centers, along with strong forwards, defensive stoppers in Payton and Pippen, and innovative, versa- tile wing players in Hill and Hardaway. And it boasted a bevy of shooters, always important in international competition. Given the team’s ultimate performance in Atlanta—it won by an average margin of more than thirty points—the squad counts as one of the greatest teams ever assembled. But by Atlanta, the novelty of nba players participating in the Olympics had worn off .