Boys To Men

know about that. In six, basketball became an Olympic sport for the first time, right, no, I will, And it happened at the much remembered Olympic Games, during which Adolf Hitler advanced the idea of aryan superiority and American track athlete Jesse Owens, with four gold medals, promptly unadvanced it.

Welcome to episode two of the Dream Team Tapes, in which we traced the history of Olympic basketball, including its humble beginnings, and figure out how over the course of a half century it advanced to the orgiastic celebration it became in Yes, if you want both basketball and use of the word orgiastic. You've come to the right place,

so let's travel back in time. Basketball was an afterthought in those ninety six games, which were played on an outdoor clay court that had become muddy and almost unplayable by the finals, which the United States won by a football like score of nine eight over Canada. M I wonder if Steve Nash knew that the US Canada rivalry goes all the way back to ninety six. One of the stars of the United States team was a fellow named Bill Wheatley, who was working for Globe Oil and

Refining at the time. He was an example of the well eclectic method of selecting players. Back then, college basketball was just a blip in the national radar, and the stars of American hoops were just as likely to be a AU players, generally tough but sure men who were

already in the workforce. Of course, the selection committee could have sent a more formidable team had they chosen players from either the original Celtics, a great touring team made up of white players, or the New York Renaissance a k a. The Renaissance Big Five or a k a. The Harlem Wrens, comprised of African Americans, but the Celtics were considered professionals and the Olympics were for amateurs, a notion that was not quite as ridiculous back then as

it came to be, and the Wrens were black. Though the Celtics and the Wrens frequently played against each other, for the most part, basketball, like a lot of things back then, was strictly segregated. War canceled the four into Olympics, but the games came back in and by that time college basketball had started to become big in our sporting culture.

So the American stars of the team that won gold in London they beat France in the final one, we're players like Ralph Beard and Alex Groza, who were all Americans in Kentucky, and oh yes, they were also two of the players who a few years later were barred from basketball for point shaving. Ah. Yes, that true Olympic spirit, but precedent was set. Gradually, the a AU representation went away and college players dominated the Olympic rosters as we

continued to win and win big. By mid century, we reached the best version of the college led team, the nineteen sixty gold medal team in Rome Co captained by Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird of their time. Believe It victories in sixty and sixty eight were followed by the strange goings on in Munich nineteen seventy two, games that were marred by the murders of eleven Israeli athletes as well as the West

German policeman. Now the card shows three seconds there is time for the Russians to go to their big man, Alexander bell Out. They're going to try Alexander Bellar between two American defenders. Back there with you yet parts and the Russian team is Bob Alexander Bella. At this time it is over the infamous due over game. In fact, that twice due over game that gave the Soviets the gold medal and gave the United States its first loss ever an Olympic competition. If you don't know the whole story,

google it. It's fascinating. Anyway, that final was considered an anomaly, and our supremacy went on Golden Montreal in seventy six and gold in Los Angeles and four spliced around the nineteen eighty Boy cut that four team, which included Dream teamers Michael Jordan's, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullen, and was so good that it cut Charles Barkley, John Stockton and Karl Malone, none of whom should have been cut. By the way, was a particular source of pride and joy.

Our college kids, though younger and unpaid, played for the love of the game, and damn it, we were still better than anyone else. But then we come to the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, our critical trip down court, Smith tan Head at the Sabonis has the rebound for the Sauviettes, Tate Sock, they'll break the pressure, and here it comes Martial Nas, Sabonis and Kurt Nitas is fouled as Paul's had to cut in to say these He've

asked at four files on him. You heard the announcer Dick Nburgh say three names in that brief clip, Sa Bonus, Marciaonis and Kirk Nitas. All three played for the Soviet Union. All three were better prepared at that moment to win a gold medal than anyone from the United States. For these eight games, which are best remembered for Ben Johnson's amazing one final win over Carl Lewis followed by Johnson's drug suspension that also changed forever the perception of college

players representing the United States in the Olympic Games. Here's David Robinson, who was supposed to be the star of that team, talking about his first surprising and disappointing meeting with that Olympic coach. Why not you have another go? It's pretty good? I was thinking, why wouldn't he said, you're not gonna make the he David is referring to as John Thompson, who coached that team in Seoul. You can't pass, you know your your basketball skills are a home.

I mean, maybe that was just John Thompson's head game. Let's hope so, because one would hope that John wasn't that bad at judging basketball talent. Now, over the years, Thompson has gotten much criticism for the team's embarrassing bronze medal finish. But Thompson was simply in the wrong headspace. Damn, I hate that expression, but there it is, and a dozen other college coaches would have been there too. He was slow to realize how good international basketball had become.

He was slow to realize how subtly different Olympic rules were from what was played in NCAA basketball. He was slow to realize that other countries, especially the Soviet Union which won the gold and Yugoslavia, which won the silver, were sending polished professionals who had learned the game for Americans. Meanwhile, we were sending younger college players who were still learning the game. Thompson was slow to realize that perhaps someone else should have been coaching the team, but Big John

was part of an ingrained system. Our Olympic teams were manned by colle uch players and coached by college coaches, all of whom had paid their dues. The next college coach, Ah, it would almost certainly be that dues paying genius at Duke Mike Sassky, but that never happened. The Eight Eight Games was a watership. The last time we sent our

college kids, the basketball world was about to change. The next boy she'll hear will be that of the late great Boris Nankovic, who, at the time the Dream Team was formed, was Secretary General of PHOEBA, which is the Federation International Day Basketball. Boris, and Boris alone saw the future. He was the one that thought you know what if we play people better than us and they beat us by a hundred points, so what that will make us

better in the end. Here's Boris. It's a little hard to understand, but Boris is English is infinitely better than my Serbian, which is non existent. The future then only with the vetter that Stankovic was an interesting cat. He was sort of the Yugoslavian version of the late great David Stern, Intelligent, far sighted, and suddenly, very subtly, more

suddenly than Stern, in love with power. Stankovic was a utility player on the Yugoslavian team that competed in the first Feeble organized World Championships in nineteen fifty in Argentina. We finished nights, Stankovic told me. And there were nine teams anyway. Boris had long been a fan of American basketball, and after he joined FIBA, he was sent to America to better learn the game. He traveled all around and saw mostly college games, and Bill Walton was his favorite player.

Boor Stankovic amazing, man, amazing, that's my Bill Walton. I had met Boris a couple of times back in the eighties when he was in the height of his FABA power. But by the time I interviewed him for the Dream Team book in two thousand and ten, he was pretty much retired. I caught up to him in his Stanbul, who was during the World Basketball Championships. But the main reason I went was to talk to Boris. Well, that and to eat Turkish food with my wife, which is

absurdly good. So Boris, by that time was the eminence Grease of international basketball. While we were talking, people came by and just stared at him, much like they would stare at David Stern. You could tell Boris loved it, But I mean, who wouldn't write. When I sat down to start the book, I decided to make the Stankivic story chapter one, and something about his bio really struck me. For much of his early life, Boris had been a

meat inspector in Belgrade in his native Yugoslavia. My job was to look over the meat and cheese and as you do here, put a stamp on it. Boris told me that really struck me. David Stern, more or less his counterpart, was the child of New York City Delhi operators. Still, Stern went to Columbia law and started in New York City with a high powered law firm. Boris was slapping meat and smelling cheese. Hit me for another reason too.

I grew up working in my father's meat market. So I titled the first chapter The Inspector of Meat, and it gave me kind of a format for the rest of the book. Every subsequent chapter began with a V. David Robinson was the Christian soldier, Jordan was the chosen one, and so on. It was a little thing, but it helped anyway. The Inspector of Meat was convinced that international basketball would not grow if the greatest players in the world, those in the NBA, did not interact with the rest

of the world. There was a proviso in effect back then that specifically forbade international players from playing against NBA players. It was the worst case of pearl clutching. Oh my god, our lads will be sullied by playing against the dastardly prose. But it was a sham, of course, since every other nation routinely sent its professionals into international competition. Now did they make the millions earned by American professionals. No, they

were still pros sports was their living. Oscar Schmidt, who played for Brazil, an excellent shooter who never met a shot he didn't like, by the way, was making a half million dollars playing hoops. So to get NBA players into the Olympics, Stankovic had to change FEBA rules and began lobbying to do so as early as nineteen eighties. Three in the resolution for allowing professionals to play almost passed.

The vote was thirty one twenty seven, the two most notable negative votes cast by the United States and the Soviet Union. But by the late nineteen eighties the winds of change were strong, despite the fact that USA and the Soviet Union still voted against it. The resolution that open basketball should be the rule of fiber was passed in April of nine, and there was overwhelming joyous triumphant cheers throughout our land. Not really, almost nobody in the

United States noticed. Almost nobody gave a damn, including David Stern. I don't think we were through the act. We had no idea what we might be getting into. You know, the Olympics is that it didn't it didn't you know, it didn't pick up steam until after it passed. It was okay, now what do we do? So let's unpack that a little bit. Why did the United States vote against open competition which would open the door for pros and the Olympics. Very simply, the Olympics were not on

David Stern's radar. In truth, they weren't on anyone's radar beside bar of Snakovics. True, Stern had drawn up TV deals with several European countries, and the league had even stepped its toe into international play. But Stern was not thinking about the Olympics with those TV contracts and those games.

He was thinking about the bottom line. TV meant revenue, game exposure meant marketing opportunities, And even to this visionary commissioner, the idea of the NBA participating in the Olympics was, for the first six or seven years of the decade of the eighties, a non starter. How could the Olympics be monetized? How could that help anyway? Our college lads represented the Olympic team, right, But things started to change. Stankovic had support around the world. The world was getting smaller,

the game was getting bigger. Then it was that beating and sold in that demonstrated the world was catching up to us. And there was also this man who Larry Bird speaks about. I love Dave. Dave gas one of the smartest human thingy loss. I wanted to hang out with That's what it was, if he wanted me to hang out with him. A man named Dave Gavitt has a central part in the Stream Team saga, and, along with Boris Stankovic, is one of the forgotten men of

the Stream Team story. An amateur basketball circles, Gavitt had done it all, seen it all, had been a successful, respected coach and athletic director. He had been one of the masterminds behind the creation of the Big East Conference, and most impressive, he was the moving force behind the expansion of the n c A basketball tournament into a billion dollar bonanza. So it was natural that when an organization called USA Basketball was formed, Gavitt would be the

one to let it. Most men who had been around the college game for as long as Gavitt had were hide bound traditionalists NBA players in the Olympics, why do you kid me, this is a college game? But Gavitt wasn't like that. Gavitt saw the future, Embrace the future. He had bargained with the slickst of the slick network TV executives to get serious jack for college hoops. So he was the one that could step into David Stern's office without being intimidated and tell him what's what, Which

is what he did. When Stern suggested, look, we'll just buy the Olympics, Gavitt was the one that said to him, David, We're not going to buy the Olympics. The Olympics belongs to the country. What I remember most about Gavitt was that he was both businessman and visionary romantic about basketball. I interviewed him for the book not long before he died at the age of seventy three and two thousand eleven,

and over lunch he told me this story. He was coaching a touring college all star team at a game in Assens. We were playing a night game and there must have been thirty thousand people there and the Acropolis was in the background with a full moon. Gathertt remembered, I had chills. I love that story and often think about when I think of Gavitt. After Gavitt had cast a no vote on behalf of the United States, even though he knew the resolution was going to pass, which

it did, he asked for the floor. Now that we've done this, Gavitt told the feb reps, you need to realize a few things and help us. We're dealing with a powerful organization in the NBA, and we're gonna have to get your cooperation with dates and things like that. So the NBA was ready. It had a good man and Dave Gabett ready to take charge. What it didn't

have was the NBA stars. Here's Charles Barkley and Larry Bird who were coming at this Dream Team thing from two distinctly different directions, and everyone in the first five it was a big, beautiful Nobody put all five us on the cover illustrated and but one thing I didn't want to do is go over there and not built to play at all and take away a chance for somebody else to have officer. So Charles was gung ho

and Larry was worried about his back. Twenty eight years after the Dream Team won Golden Barcelona, there is still mystery surrounding how exactly the team was selected. There weren't tryouts. Hey, Michael Jordan listened, would like you to take a couple of days off from golf and come out to Indianapolis. Or some o their godforsaken place. You wouldn't set foot in and run through some drills that was not going to happen. There was a selection committee, but really some

of the players selected themselves. Magic wants in. He's in. Carl Malone wants in. He's in. Jordan once in, of course he's in. Charles Barkley wants in. Charles not so fast. So in the next episode of The Dream Team Tapes, I'll discuss how this team came together, some of the inner intrigue and lasting antagonism that came out of the Dream Team selection process. I'm calling it hrding cats. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed The Dream Team Tapes, please follow, rate,

and review wherever you get your podcasts. The Dream Team Tapes is written and hosted by Jack McCallum. Executive producers Mark Francis and Scott Waxman. Executive producer for I Heart Media is Shorn to Tone. The Dream Team Tapes is a Diversion podcast's original series in association with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.