
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 31, 1995                   TAG: 9507310110
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

'96 OLYMPIC BASKETBALL TEAM STRONG

Lenny Wilkens got his Dream Team on Sunday, and he wants this squad to be as distinctive as the one that rolled to the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona in 1992.

An assistant coach of the original Dream Team, Wilkens sidesteps the subject of which might be the better squad - the original with Magic and Michael or the new one with Hakeem and Shaq.

``I'm a little partial to the first team,'' Wilkens said Sunday. ``I don't think you'll see a team like that again. Each team will make its mark. We're going to go out there and be us and not somebody else. We're not going to try to compete with what that team did.''

USA Basketball made most of the team roster for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta official Sunday, announcing a squad that includes four players from the 1992 team and one naturalized U.S. citizen.

Named to the first 10 of 12 spots were: Orlando guard Anfernee Hardaway, Detroit forward Grant Hill, Utah forward Karl Malone, Indiana guard Reggie Miller, Houston center Hakeem Olajuwon, Orlando center Shaquille O'Neal, Chicago forward Scottie Pippen, San Antonio center David Robinson, Milwaukee forward Glenn Robinson and Utah guard John Stockton.

Malone, Pippen and Stockton were on the original Dream Team, as was Robinson, who also won a bronze medal in the 1988 Games, the last all-collegian national team.

The other two roster spots will be filled next year, probably in the spring.

The selection of this Olympic team was largely without the controversy that surrounded the makeup of the 1992 team, when Detroit's Isiah Thomas wasn't included and Michael Jordan had to be persuaded to take part.

This time, Jordan said early on he didn't want to be considered for a spot, and there were no glaring omissions. Passed over were three members of the world championship team, Charlotte's Larry Johnson, Detroit's Derrick Coleman and Seattle's Shawn Kemp.

Olajuwon was named to the team after waging a long campaign with basketball's international governing body to be declared eligible to compete for his adopted country. Earlier this month, FIBA granted Olajuwon, who as a teen-ager played for his native Nigeria in an international competition, a special waiver.

The team was selected in June by a USA Basketball committee headed by Rod Thorn, the NBA's vice president of operations. Previously picked as Wilkens' assistants were Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan and two college coaches, Georgia Tech's Bobby Cremins and Minnesota's Clem Haskins.

by CNB