10/02/00 9:50 a.m.
Winning Ugly
The Dream Team in Sydney.

By Stephen Moore, NR contributing editor

hope that readers don't regard me as unpatriotic for saying that in the closing moments of the U.S. versus Lithuania Olympic basketball semifinal game, I found myself rooting furiously for the Lithuanians. (Something tells me I wasn't the only one. An unscientific poll that I did of five close friends found that 60 percent were rooting against the U.S.A.)

There was a time when it would have been unimaginable that I could bring myself to ever wave the banner of one our former Cold War adversaries. After all, I still feel the fury as if it were only yesterday when the Russian basketball team stole — and by the way, stole is not too harsh a term — the Gold Medal from the Americans in 1972 — by replaying the last three seconds of the game until the Russians finally got it right. Those Eastern European refs should have been tarred and feathered.

Part of my betrayal of my country is a result of the thoroughly American impulse to root for the underdog. (I'm from Chicago. Every sports team I've ever rooted for in my life that didn't have a player with the number 23 on their Jersey was the underdog!) And Lithuania was a 20 point underdog. But there's more. From the first jump ball in these 2000 Olympics, I never took any delight in watching "Dream Team III." Throughout these games, Vince Carter, Alonzo Mourning, Ray Allen, et al, were a brutal reminder of how far and fast American basketball has plunged relative to the rest of the world. Eight years ago it seemed that Michael Jordan could beat any foreign national team all by himself. Now we sweat out games against Lithuania and — gasp — even France.

What's embarrassing is that Americans simply don't know how to play this patently American game anymore. To put it plainly, no one can pass, and no one can shoot the rock. (The Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden, has been warning of this for years.) Here were 12 of the greatest athletes on the face of the globe getting simply outsmarted, out-hustled, to say nothing of out-classed, by a handful of slow white guys from a third world country. The Americans — and this applies for the fans, as well — can't seem to comprehend that a Vince Carter double-clutch dunk is still only worth two points. You don't get extra credit for style in hoops.

And don't get me started on free throws. If this were truly a dream team, how could Jason Kidd and Kevin Garnett brick three of four from the charity stripe in the last minute with the game on the line. Garnett's weren't even close. Pathetic!

One might have thought that a 2 point last-second victory would have instilled some humility in the dream teamers. Hardly. After the game, Vince Carter scoffed at any suggestion that the game was in doubt. We weren't worried "at all," Vince Carter haughtily assured the press corps after the game. Right, Vince, never in doubt. Now you and your $6 million annual salary can get back in your limo, race out of the Olympic village to your four star hotel, and play Nintendo on your TV.

Few of the dream teamers had the grace or dignity to praise the Lithuanians for their near-earth shattering upset. Perhaps it was embarrassment, but Team U.S.A. refused to even acknowledge the near-debacle that had just occurred and some continued to describe their rivals with disdain. Only Jason Kidd conceded the panic of those last few moments and acknowledged that if the U.S. had lost, he would have had to move to New Zealand.

My spirits were hardly lifted when less than 24 hours later the U.S. gold-medal-winning relay sprinters made jack-asses out of themselves for a full 25 minutes as they preened around the track stadium with the flag draped around them. During the medal ceremony, the hamming by the victorious Americans continued. All that was needed to round out this circus atmosphere was Roseanne to sing the national anthem.

Doesn't anyone know how to win with grace and style anymore?

Here's one suggestion: Let's end this farce of pampered NBA superstars competing in the Olympics. Let's go back to putting our best amateur high-school and college kids out there as we used to do in the good old days. Are you telling me that the best American college basketball players can't beat France? If not, we truly are an empire in decline. Anyway, I'd be much prouder of my country if we lost with the college kids than to win in such ugly fashion with the NBA-BIES.