Reminders
Reminders
11:17pm (Mla time) Aug 31, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 1, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
I MISSED the Argentina-Italy basketball finals, but I didn't miss the USA-Lithuania battle for bronze. I hadn't been following Olympic basketball closely on TV, though I'd been reading the reports and knew that the press was no longer calling the US team the "Dream Team" but the "Dreaming Team." This was after Allen Iverson and company racked up three losses in the course of their stint in Athens, at the hands variously of Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina, forcing them to settle for bronze after dominating the sport forever. I caught the US-Lithuania match on TV last Sunday afternoon and got some valuable reminders not just of what basketball was all about but of what life was all about.
Of course, it's true: The US Olympic team did not have the best players in the NBA, despite having Iverson and Tim Duncan there. And they will remain the team to beat four years from now, in the next Olympics, when they come roaring back seeking revenge after being humbled in this way. Shaquille O'Neal wasn't there, Kobe Bryant wasn't there, Kevin Garnett wasn't there, Jason Kidd wasn't there, the Detroit guys weren't there.
And it's true as well: The teams that beat the United States had one or two guys that were playing for the NBA, too. But it's no excuse. The rest of the world may now say with passion, "Ah, but we love this game, too!"
First, the reminders of what basketball is about: As the US-Lithuania game showed, basketball is a team sport. Iverson and company escaped with the win only by the skin of their teeth. They pulled away only in the fourth quarter after a scrappy dogfight for three quarters and a good deal of the fourth. Lithuania simply had the better teamwork, even if they were out-hustled in the boards. One announcer said the US players, being used to one-on-one, never quite found a way to deal with the zone. But it was more than that. It was that the US players, being used to advertising individual wares, the better to grab the attention of sponsors and land fatter contracts, tended to play more indulgently. The other teams were not out to wow the crowd, they were out to win the gold.
Second, basketball is not just a game of height, it is a game of shooting. The object of the game after all is to get the ball to fall inside the hoop. Of course, I will forever thank Dr. J for giving the game a touch of class and a dash of excitement by inventing all those moves, which have become staples in the NBA. But the flashiest of Vince Carter's dunks still count for two points while the most awkward of Reggie Miller's shots behind the arc still count for three points. I do recall that the most feared of the Filipino players during the Asian Games many years ago was not Samboy Lim, who dazzled local fans with his twisting shots underneath the hoop, but Allan Caidic, who dismayed opponents with his long-distance sharp-shooting.
I myself thought the Lithuanians would win the bronze, shooting the living daylights off the US team from afar and from virtually every angle for most of the game. The only reason the US team won it eventually was not their spectacular plays but their own three-point shots, which started going in in the third quarter and particularly in the fourth. They gave the Lithuanians a dose of their own medicine. Had they found the touch early on in Greece, they might have gone home champions. In fact, as they themselves proved in that game, if a little belatedly, that a basketball team can get very far with very good team work and very good shooting.
But the biggest lesson there is not about basketball, it is about life. It's to be found at the very opening of the Games, during the parade, when the crowd fell into a polite silence when the US team appeared and waved to them and broke into furious applause when the Iraqi and Palestinian teams floated into view. The crowd's sympathies became more abundantly clear over the next couple of weeks when they cheered every team the US basketball players, the epitome of American sports dominance, played against. Some even went on to boo the US team when some of its players showed petulance, or boorishness, arguing with the referees.
That was the biggest obstacle the US team had to hurdle, the nightmare the Dream Team conjured. It wasn't that they didn't have all of the best players of the NBA, it wasn't that they didn't have any bona fide outside snipers, it wasn't that the other teams had gotten so much better. It was that they were playing to a crowd that didn't like them. Of course, they could always have risen to the challenge and charmed the hostiles with graciousness. But they didn't. The habit of trash-talking dies hard.
The hostility, of course, owed to George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq and overall attempt to impose his will upon the world. Which in the end went against the entire spirit of the Olympics, which is fairness, which is competition, which is respecting other people. The ad on ESPN says it all: "You are my opponent, but you are not my enemy. On the contrary, you are my friend. It is through our struggle that we make ourselves shine." Or words to that effect. That is the spirit that has been lost in the frenzied American effort over the last few years to bully the world into submission.
That is the spirit that has animated not just the Olympics but the conduct between nations until the American response to 9/11. The fate suffered by the US Dream Team in the Olympics does say many things. It says at bottom that no matter how strong you are, you are not going to win against opponents that are united in a common effort to resist you. You are not going to win against opponents that have found the reason and the resolve to topple you.
It's a reminder that goes well beyond sports.
11:17pm (Mla time) Aug 31, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 1, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
I MISSED the Argentina-Italy basketball finals, but I didn't miss the USA-Lithuania battle for bronze. I hadn't been following Olympic basketball closely on TV, though I'd been reading the reports and knew that the press was no longer calling the US team the "Dream Team" but the "Dreaming Team." This was after Allen Iverson and company racked up three losses in the course of their stint in Athens, at the hands variously of Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina, forcing them to settle for bronze after dominating the sport forever. I caught the US-Lithuania match on TV last Sunday afternoon and got some valuable reminders not just of what basketball was all about but of what life was all about.
Of course, it's true: The US Olympic team did not have the best players in the NBA, despite having Iverson and Tim Duncan there. And they will remain the team to beat four years from now, in the next Olympics, when they come roaring back seeking revenge after being humbled in this way. Shaquille O'Neal wasn't there, Kobe Bryant wasn't there, Kevin Garnett wasn't there, Jason Kidd wasn't there, the Detroit guys weren't there.
And it's true as well: The teams that beat the United States had one or two guys that were playing for the NBA, too. But it's no excuse. The rest of the world may now say with passion, "Ah, but we love this game, too!"
First, the reminders of what basketball is about: As the US-Lithuania game showed, basketball is a team sport. Iverson and company escaped with the win only by the skin of their teeth. They pulled away only in the fourth quarter after a scrappy dogfight for three quarters and a good deal of the fourth. Lithuania simply had the better teamwork, even if they were out-hustled in the boards. One announcer said the US players, being used to one-on-one, never quite found a way to deal with the zone. But it was more than that. It was that the US players, being used to advertising individual wares, the better to grab the attention of sponsors and land fatter contracts, tended to play more indulgently. The other teams were not out to wow the crowd, they were out to win the gold.
Second, basketball is not just a game of height, it is a game of shooting. The object of the game after all is to get the ball to fall inside the hoop. Of course, I will forever thank Dr. J for giving the game a touch of class and a dash of excitement by inventing all those moves, which have become staples in the NBA. But the flashiest of Vince Carter's dunks still count for two points while the most awkward of Reggie Miller's shots behind the arc still count for three points. I do recall that the most feared of the Filipino players during the Asian Games many years ago was not Samboy Lim, who dazzled local fans with his twisting shots underneath the hoop, but Allan Caidic, who dismayed opponents with his long-distance sharp-shooting.
I myself thought the Lithuanians would win the bronze, shooting the living daylights off the US team from afar and from virtually every angle for most of the game. The only reason the US team won it eventually was not their spectacular plays but their own three-point shots, which started going in in the third quarter and particularly in the fourth. They gave the Lithuanians a dose of their own medicine. Had they found the touch early on in Greece, they might have gone home champions. In fact, as they themselves proved in that game, if a little belatedly, that a basketball team can get very far with very good team work and very good shooting.
But the biggest lesson there is not about basketball, it is about life. It's to be found at the very opening of the Games, during the parade, when the crowd fell into a polite silence when the US team appeared and waved to them and broke into furious applause when the Iraqi and Palestinian teams floated into view. The crowd's sympathies became more abundantly clear over the next couple of weeks when they cheered every team the US basketball players, the epitome of American sports dominance, played against. Some even went on to boo the US team when some of its players showed petulance, or boorishness, arguing with the referees.
That was the biggest obstacle the US team had to hurdle, the nightmare the Dream Team conjured. It wasn't that they didn't have all of the best players of the NBA, it wasn't that they didn't have any bona fide outside snipers, it wasn't that the other teams had gotten so much better. It was that they were playing to a crowd that didn't like them. Of course, they could always have risen to the challenge and charmed the hostiles with graciousness. But they didn't. The habit of trash-talking dies hard.
The hostility, of course, owed to George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq and overall attempt to impose his will upon the world. Which in the end went against the entire spirit of the Olympics, which is fairness, which is competition, which is respecting other people. The ad on ESPN says it all: "You are my opponent, but you are not my enemy. On the contrary, you are my friend. It is through our struggle that we make ourselves shine." Or words to that effect. That is the spirit that has been lost in the frenzied American effort over the last few years to bully the world into submission.
That is the spirit that has animated not just the Olympics but the conduct between nations until the American response to 9/11. The fate suffered by the US Dream Team in the Olympics does say many things. It says at bottom that no matter how strong you are, you are not going to win against opponents that are united in a common effort to resist you. You are not going to win against opponents that have found the reason and the resolve to topple you.
It's a reminder that goes well beyond sports.
posted by Dante at 4:20 PM
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