THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 17, 1994 TAG: 9408170413
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
In the Golden Age of Basketball, a year or so ago, before Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls, I suggested that the Dream Team of professional players chosen to represent this country in the Olympics be dissolved.
Give collegiate players a shot at glory, I felt.
To field that super constellation, in which Jordan was the North Star, was like pitting a championship college squad with a pickup five from a junior-high school playground.
So we watched the stars toy with other countries' players who were awestruck at being on the same court with their idols. Jordan, and some of the others, coasted, so as not to humble the outclassed foe. There were pleasing aspects to seeing the mythic warriors on the same team, as if Hector and Achilles were fraternizing in a break in the action before the walls of Troy. But it lacked suspense.
Now we have Dream Team II, which has been a nightmare. Some of its members introduced to global competition the art of ``trash talk,'' slurring a foe during play to cow him or break his concentration.
Their coach, interviewed on TV, said he had cautioned them about the trashing and some had ceased, but others continued. It's widespread in league play, he said, and they do it as much to psych themselves as unsettle opponents.
What he should have done, on the second offense, was bench them for the game or, better yet, the series. It would have been instructive for a great many players throughout the sports world.
And it would have been the highlight of the championship games as far as the participation for the United States was concerned.
``They are better basketball players than us, but that doesn't make them better people,'' said Puerto Rican coach Carlos Morales. ``They made fun of us.''
Young Australians had looked forward to playing against their heroes. ``Unfortunately,'' said Coach Barry Barnes, ``there was a degree of disappointment afterward.''
The disappointment among Americans is even keener at their team's lack of class and sportsmanship, to the point that those who choose our representatives for the 1996 Olympics should return to colleges, where good sportsmanship still counts.
Meanwhile, some from Dream Team II boast of itching to play Dream Team 1. Yes, yes, by all means. That might be just the lure that would bring Jordan off the baseball diamond and into the air to give that lot a chastening.
O, to see Jordan fly - and smile - again!
Dream II's misconduct evokes Grantland Rice's advice of more than half a century ago:
When the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name -
He marks - not that you won or lost - but how you played the game.
Old-fashioned? Yes, sadly.
But true. by CNB