Basketball: NZ are minnows in a very big pool

By PETER JESSUP

There's an argument that amateur sport was finally killed off when the Olympic family embraced the millionaires of the American National Basketball Association.

In Barcelona, Earvin "Magic" Johnson and his team-mates in the United States representative side were dubbed the Dream Team and proved the depth of the international gap everyone knew had always existed, averaging 117 points for and 73 against in their eight games on the way to gold.

The Sydney squad still carry the Dream Team label, but there the similarity ends.

Numerous players have pulled out with injury, more are going for surgery that will prepare them for the next NBA season, one is getting married, some dropped out because they don't rate the Olympics, the NBA's biggest star, Shaquille O'Neal, said he had two golds and it was someone else's turn.

There has been no mention of the conflict between his drinks sponsor and the Olympic drink sponsor.

The US has dominated Olympic basketball, Dream Team or no, since the sport first appeared at the Games, at Berlin in 1936. The tournament was played outdoors on a clay tennis court but torrential rain turned the final into a shambles. The ball wouldn't bounce and the US eventually beat Canada only 19-8.

In the next Olympics, in London in 1948, a Chinese player on his way to the basket ran between the legs of the 7ft US centre Bob Furland. China lost the quarterfinal and the US downed France 65-21 in the final.

The 1952 tournament in Helsinki started the sporting Cold War.

The Soviets met the US in the final but, having been thrashed in roundplay, decided their best option was not to play. They froze the ball, stalled, sat down on court. After 10 minutes the score was 4-2 to the US, at halftime it was only 17-15. The US eventually won 36-25 after the longest 40 minutes of basketball ever.

The US won every basketball gold from there through to Munich, going 62 games undefeated, until they were robbed in one of sport's great controversies. The US thought they had won 50-49 when the final hooter went. But International Basketball Federation president R. William Jones of Britain was in the crowd and took it on himself to rule that three more minutes should be played. Russia scored an improbable 51-50 victory. The US team unanimously decided not to front up to collect the silver. The shadow from this game was cast across several Olympics afterwards as fans worldwide and the international media clamoured for another Soviet-US final that would provide a true result.

It wasn't to be. Yugoslavia upset the Soviets in Montreal and there were boycotts of Moscow and Los Angeles. In Seoul, the US lost to the Soviets in the semifinals, the victors going on to beat Yugoslavia 76-63 for the gold. In Barcelona, the Dream Team beat Croatia 117-85.

The Dream Team came into existence when basketball's international governing body decided to allow the previously banned American professionals to play. Up to then the US team had been chosen from university sides.

Contrary to popular belief, the US did not support the motion, believing that images of millionaires and one-sided results would turn people off the game and fundraisers away from giving support to junior basketball.

But the vote saw the most expensive sports team ever assembled heading for Barcelona, led by Magic Johnson. So to Barcelona, called in by the recently tested positive Magic, went the most expensive sports team ever assembled: Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Clyde Drexler. And two guys whose names now reside in trivial pursuit, relative unknowns Chris Mullin and Chris Laettner. Barkley top-scored with a 23 average, Jordan had 17.

This year, it's the other way around. Only Gary Paton from Seattle returns after Atlanta gold (won 95-69 over Yugoslavia).

Of the other 11, only Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning of the Miami Heat have been around for as long as the likes of Magic, but they are well short of permanent all-star status. The team include Kevin Garnett of Minnesota, one of the game's highest-paid players, half of the San Antonio "Twin Towers" in Tim Duncan. Most Kiwis would struggle to recognise any of the others: Ray Allen of Milwaukee, Vin Baker of Seattle, Vince Carter from Toronto, Allan Houston from the New York Knicks, Jason Kidd from Phoenix and Steve Smith from Portland, Shareef Abdur-Rahim from Vancouver.

Better known is head coach Rudi Tomjanovich, who coached Houston to back-to-back NBA titles in 1994 and 1995. He refused to discuss the standard of the side or to compare it with earlier Dream Teams. "That's an area I never get into. This is the team we have, my job is to get them to be the best possible team they can be. It's for the media and the fans to get into that kind of deal. Hopefully, our goal should be to be the best team ever."

His keyword for the Olympics is versatility. Nearly every player is capable of playing in more than one position.

His major problem, he said, was selling to the players the idea that the surfeit of talent meant they would not get the court time they were used to in the NBA.

Tomjanovich's take on the opposition, based on the best that make it to the NBA, is that most rely on their tall men and that the tall men are "face-up guys, not power players - instead of using muscle they like to face up, use footwork and take the ball to the basket, and I think we can defend those guys very well."

Oceania champions New Zealand, who are among Tomjanovich's opponents in Group A, are not like that at all. If anything, muscle and power will be their problem. With big blockers such as Pero Cameron and Peter Pokai in mid-court, the Tall Blacks are sure to go close to their foul-out limits.

This is New Zealand's first Olympic appearance in the sport. The Tall Blacks are in the spot usually won by Australia but the host nation goes in automatically. Sean Marks of Toronto is New Zealand's only player with NBA experience, that measured in minutes, but Mark Dickel has been a college star and Paul Henare and Kirk Penney have just had seasons there, while others including Phill Jones, Ralph Lattimore and captain Cameron have experience in European leagues.

New Zealand are minnows in a very big pool, and the teams they face in the Games will be very different to those they met in the build-up Slam Downunder tournament two months ago. The others in Group A are Italy (European champions), France (third place in Europe), Lithuania (fourth European qualifying spot), and China (Asian champions). Group B includes reigning world champions Yugoslavia, Australia (qualifying as host country), Spain (European runners-up), Russia (fifth and last Europe qualifying spot), Canada (Americas runner-up) and Angola (African champions).

Australia lost 80-74 to Lithuania in the playoff for bronze or nothing in Atlanta. They have six players with NBA experience and four Atlanta veterans.

Angola appear at their third Olympics after finishing 10th at Barcelona and 11th at Atlanta and are the weakest team in Group B.

Canada have only two NBA players in Sydney. Three others, including Toronto's Rik Fox, are shunning the tournament.

China was eighth in 1996. Their hopes are pinned on the men known in Asia as the "Walking Great Wall" - forwards Wang Zhi Zhi from the Dallas Mavericks at 2.13m, 19-year-old 2.24m Yao Ming and 2.10m Menk Bater.

Italy are the 1999 European champions after beating fancied Yugoslavia and have Europe's finest front-court player in Greg Fucka.

Lithuania won bronze at Barcelona and Atlanta. They have lost Portland centre and three-time Olympian Arvydas Sabonis (foot injury) and guard Arturas Karnisovas (knee) but have a good three-point shot squad.

Russia beat the US in the world championship semi-finals, then lost to Yugoslavia in the finals in 1998. They have five NBA players.

Spain were second to France at the 1999 Euro championships and have the European tournament's leading scorer in Alberto Herreras.

Yugoslavia are defending world champions, 1996 silver medallists, and have four of six European crowns between 1989 and 1999. They have four NBA players.

For New Zealand, this is the equivalent of the All Whites making the World Cup in 1982. But the only side against which they have a chance, Angola, is on the other side of the draw. Glory is to be had if New Zealand can stay within 30 points of the second-string Dream Team.