Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/081092/08109939.000

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                                                                                OLYMPICS, Page 63

1992 SUMMER GAMES

BASKETBALL: Look For the Silver Lining


It's an exciting tournament -- the one that doesn't include
the Dream Team

By PAUL A. WITTEMAN/BADALONA


    At 9:30 a.m. the plaza leading to the basketball venue in
the gritty Barcelona suburb of Badalona is free of T-shirt
hawkers, ticket scalpers and the sunburned masses sporting
Cleveland Indians caps and L.A. Raiders shorts. The basketball
junkies from the land of Johnson, Jordan, Bird and Barkley are
still asleep. But inside the arena, there are large men,
graceful and lithe, already hard at work. Their goals: silver,
bronze or merely a good finish in the basketball tournament.

    Make no mistake. Lithuania wants to beat Croatia.
Australia plans to beat them both. The Unified Team thinks it
can take home silver in what is sure to be its final appearance
in the Games. Puerto Rico has ambitions for a medal. Even Angola
has its sights set on ninth place and greater respect. In the
most competitive Olympic tournament since the sport was
introduced in 1936, none of the other 11 teams think much about
trying to beat the U.S. Dream Team. They are not idiots, after
all.

    More important, they are too busy worrying about one
another. Donn Nelson, a coach with the National Basketball
Association's Golden State Warriors, who is assisting the
Lithuanian team, says, "There are two totally different events.
When the U.S. plays, it is more of an entertainment. When the
other teams play, it is very exciting. Anybody can win." Petar
Skansi, the thoughtful coach of the Croatian team, has a
slightly different perspective. "No one wants to beat the Dream
Team," he says. "It would be bad for the sport because they are
clearly the best. Maybe someone will beat them in 15 or 20
years."

    For Skansi and other coaches, there are more immediate
concerns as the tournament moves into the single elimination
medal round this week. Can anyone stop Lithuania's Sarunas
Marciulionis? Will Brazil's Oscar Schmidt ever forgo a
three-point shot for a pass to a teammate? Will U.S. forward
Charles Barkley keep his elbows to himself? The answers are: no,
no and most definitely not. "Charles is Charles," says Michael
Jordan. "He's not crazy. He just likes to push his behavior to
the edge." Jordan and his teammates have been trying to push it
back, with only modest success. When Barkley threw an elbow at
Angola's spindly David Dias in the U.S. team's first outing, he
was quickly yanked offstage by director-coach Chuck Daly.

    Barkley's act of Ugly Americanism was played down by
Angolan coach Victorino Cunha. "We know Charles Barkley," he
said. "No problem. He does this 10 times a year in the N.B.A."
For his part, Cunha deserves a medal for perseverance. In 1975
he started the Angolan basketball program. From scratch. In the
17 years since, he and his team have endured a war that
virtually destroyed their nation. On the court they have put up
with ridicule. For all who would listen in Badalona, Cunha had
one message. "We can play. We can play," he repeated. No one
thought so after the U.S. obliterated them by 68 points. But the
next day, Angola led Germany, only to fall short by a point in
the last minute. "We were very lucky," says German center Hansi
Gnad. The host Spaniards were not. Behind Jean Conceicao's 22
points, the Angolans buried the favored home team 83-63 in the
upset of the week. Angola can definitely play.

    If Angola's Olympic debut was unlikely, consider those of
Lithuania and Croatia. Neither team existed last year. Their
countries, new to the conjugation of nations, exist only
perilously and amid great hardship. But on the court, Lithuania
and Croatia do honor to their homelands. Lithuania is led by
Marciulionis, whose favorite painter is Hieronymus Bosch. Most
N.B.A. players do not have a favorite painter or would not know
Bosch from Beethoven, but they all know Marciulionis. This past
season as the Golden State Warrior's sixth man, he was fourth
in the N.B.A. in points scored for minutes played. "He is the
most exciting player I have seen in the tournament so far,"
said Puerto Rican coach Raymond Dalmau Perez, who at that point
had not had to face Jordan & Co.

    Marciulionis is a bull, driving fearlessly to the hoop. He
will shoot in traffic or pass the ball to 7-ft. 4-in. Arvydas
Sabonis or three-point-shooter Rimas Kurtinaitis. Croatia's
Drazen Petrovic, on the other hand, is a picador, launching
shots like lances from all over the court. Those fans familiar
with the Boston Celtics will also recognize 7-ft. 2-in. Stojko
Vrankovic. In Badalona, at least, Vrankovic is an intimidating
shot blocker. The Croatians are deeper than the Lithuanians, and
both are more talented than the Australians. Says Croatian Danko
Cvjeticanin: "We are the Dream Team of another part of the
world." Not so fast, Danko. The Grateful Dead, admirers of
Marciulionis, are backing the Lithuanians. They should know. As
performers, at least, the Dead have been on a 25-year-long
winning streak. But even if the silver medal is carried back to
Moscow and not Vilnius, all teams can celebrate. The Dream Team,
too, though it will have to settle for gold.