Rio '16 Golf: What a Shame

In October of 2009, I pictured this month’s Sports Illustrated cover with grandiose visions dancing in my head from memories of a February, 1991 cover depicting Michael, Charles and the Mailman with Magic and Bird - the Dream Team. 

My imagination, dancing from those memories, conjured up a special meeting in New York City with a few cases of cold suds and a few industry friends. We’d take-over a conference room at Sports Illustrated and SI-writer extraordinaire Jack McCallum would be holding forth, along with the creative minds of Chris Stone (now the head honcho), longtime basketball scribe and author and former Vermont Frost Heaves GM Alex Wolff, legendary writers like Gary Smith, Steve Rushin, Leigh Montville, and Ian Thomsen along with award-winning photographers Walter Iooss and John McDonough.

From the NBA’s side, we’d toss in Brian McIntyre, Russ Granik and Rick Welts, for old times sake, as they were among the architects of the “original” Dream Team. Kim Bohuny, a scratch golfer out of Furman and a longtime NBA-USA Basketball-Goodwill Games executive would be asked to put on both her basketball hat and golf visor, for which we would reward her with a bottle or two of Silver Oak.

From the world of golf, we’d need some creative genius and no better place to start than with David Feherity, commentator, talk show host and former pro golfer. He’d be joined by Golf Channel cohort Tommy Roy, the executive producer on the PGA Tour but also a contributor to the NBA on NBC. Add in the great Bob Condron, formerly of the USOC and currently the venue chief for golf at Rio 2016, along with golf course architect Gil Hanse as the majordomo for the return of the sport of golf to the Games. We’d toss in Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery for some sporting perspective and humor, and top it off with the brilliance of Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus to be sure everything was as copacetic as a Bill “Bojangles” dance marathon.

The issue at hand and nearing deadline would be the proper naming and headline writing of my imaginary (but just recently received) “Double Issue” Olympic Preview of Sports Illustrated, once king of Olympic Games coverage. The assembled group would discuss the options.

Fast forward  -- In the July 25-August 1st edition, seven United States Olympians graced the cover. It was fine. There were stories on Simone Biles, the new Queen of women’s gymnastics, on Usain Bolt and the "next gen" of track & field athletes, on the most decorated Olympian ever in Michael Phelps. His USA Swimming teammates Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky had their S.L. Price moment, right alongside a Price-penned “back-of-the-book” piece on the “Refugee Team,” a group of Olympians competing without the backing of a country to call home or a flag with which to march into the Olympic Stadium.

There wasn’t a single story on GOLF.

With the sport of golf teeing it up for the first Olympics since 1904, I envisioned an issue filled with profiles on the greatest active golfers - the “Dream Teams” of Dormie.

Let’s take a quick look at who could’ve graced the “Golf Plus” SI cover of a lifetime.

USA

Tiger Woods

Phil Mickelson

Jordan Spieth

Rickie Fowler

Spain

Sergio Garcia

Miguel Angel Jimenez

Ireland

Padraig Harrington

Northern Ireland

Rory McIlroy

Darren Clarke

South Africa

Ernie Els

Retief Goosen

Louis Oosthuizen

Australia

Jason Day

Adam Scott

Germany

Bernard Langer

Martin Kaymer

England

Lee Westwood

Justin Rose

Ian Poulter

Luke Donald

S Korea

KJ Choi

Japan

Hideki Matsuyama

Fiji

Vijay Singh

Sweden

Henrik Stenson

And, that’s just to name a few of the sport’s greatest active golfers. 

The SI Cover could’ve looked a little like the album cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, although I’m not a sure we could replace only four Beatles. We might’ve needed eight or ten silky psychedelic suits to do the sport and its global appeal justice. They could’ve all gathered around on the Zoysia grass with a few flowers to add some color. Peter Blake and Jann Haworth would be much obliged by the newfound work and a hefty Time, Inc. payday.

Of course, the pundits would’ve been conjuring and criticizing an Isiah Thomas-like conspiracy theory snub-fest, fueling enough debate to knock The Donald off the boob tube for a night or two, and we don’t mean The (Luke) Donald.

The gripes?

Where’s Jim Furyk?

Where’s Colin Montgomery, that old crank from Scotland, the birthplace of the sport?

How come there are no golfers from Canada on the cover?

Tiger’s washed up and can’t play anymore (Remember the Larry Bird critics?)

Instead? We give you Golf in the 2016 Summer Olympic games.

Thud! What a waste of a sport.

Just as sure as the IOC reinstated Baseball and Softball for the 2020 games in baseball-loving Japan, you can bet your Callaway Great Big Bertha that golf will get the (sand) trap door at the next world congress of sporting corruption. Hospitality and event planners for 2024, you can kiss your birdies good-bye.

It could’ve been great. It could’ve done for golf what the Dream Team did for basketball in 1992. 

But, oh no, only a handful of the best golfers in the world wanted to play. 

If it were the ’92 basketball players balking, it would’ve been a public relations nightmare for the N.B.A. and, the likes of Ben Simmons, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming and Tony Parker might’ve never seen United States soil, never mind NBA stardom, worldwide fame and fortune. But, this summer, golf is being given the benefit of the doubt and a free ride, PR-wise, as health threats from the terrible Zika virus and the outdoor nature of the game have swayed public opinion of the sporting slight to say, “Well that’s alright with us”

Rightfully, we should point out and give proper credit where it is due to the likes of Kaymer, Stenson, Rose, Fowler, and Harrington. High-fives to Matt Kuchar, Bubba Watson of the USA, Graham Dalaet and David Hearn of Canada and Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela, just to name a few of the men’s golfers scheduled to compete. And, the women of the LPGA deserve much credit as their showing is strong, but sadly, far less impactful for the overall growth of the sport.

Just think of what could’ve been as we all planned the cover and penned the new name.

What would your suggestion have been for the headline of the Return of Golf to the Olympics issue?

Sadly, we could only come up with - “What a Shame Game.”

Toronto Star on The Other Dream Team

A classic column on a great story.  The Other Dream Team - a success in Lithuania, then the USA, then Canada - now London!

SEE: Doug Smith of the Toronto Star - with: Click HERE

Moving documentary explores link between basketball and Lithuanian pride

It is difficult to explain or to put into context the significance of a single sporting moment on a nascent nation, how it could grip the country and shape its future and define much of what it has become.

Marius Markevicius, the American-born Lithuanian who is the director and co-producer of the widely acclaimed documentary The Other Dream Team, thinks long and hard before coming up with an apt analogy for the bronze-medal men’s basketball game at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

He knows what it means to his friends, family and countrymen, he understands how Lithuania’s overtime victory over Russia is viewed by his compatriots. He struggles a bit to put in some kind of North American context.

“This story is like Miracle on Ice,” he finally says, recalling the stunning victory for the United States over Russia at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

“If,” he adds, “it was in 1776 and George Washington was in the stands and then all of America became obsessed with hockey.

“In this case, it’s genuine, the impact.”

The film, not released in theatres in Canada but available on DVD through its website, traces the rise of the country, and the sport, from the days of occupation by the former Soviet Union until that dramatic bronze-medal game.

Three of the central characters — Arvydas Sabonis, Sarunas Marciulionis and Valdemaras Chomicius — were starters on the Soviet Union team that won the 1988 Seoul Olympics gold medal, and to hear the story of the rise of Lithuania is touching and dramatic.

Theirs were stories of constant shadowing by KGB agents while they travelled the world, of turning into black marketers in such things as aspirin, cameras and clothes they could bring back to Lithuania and of having to smile contentedly at being “Russian” when they weren’t.

“My goal was to reach America and Canada,” said Markevicius. “Growing up as a Lithuanian in America, all my life was explaining my name and how weird it is and where you’re from, and it’s this little country that people hadn’t heard of, and if they have heard of Lithuania, a lot of times it’s because of basketball. But most people still — especially in the United States, we’re geographically inept — they don’t know anything about it, so I really wanted to tell this story to Americans, teach the western world about this story.”

It is a story that Raptors rookie centre Jonas Valanciunas knows well. He was born the year Lithuania won the bronze medal and has lived the history ever since. He has seen first-hand the impact men like Sabonis and Marciulionis have had in his homeland.

“They’re heroes,” said the director. “It’s hard to describe. Arvydas Sabonis and Marciulionis are the two most famous . . . I like to say it’s almost like Michael Jordan if we didn’t have any other sports in the United States. It’s hard to even describe it.

Or in Brazil, it’s Pele if they didn’t have surfing and Carnival. In Lithuania, as a small country, they don’t have a lot and they have this and it’s so important to them. So yes, they’re heroes.”

It’s a fact not lost on the 20-year-old Raptors centre, who represents the newest age of Lithuanian basketball.

“Everybody should know what happened in Lithuania at that time,” Valanciunas said. “Maybe this film is going to help to fight for independence in all other countries.

“I have pride every time to play for Lithuania; I feel that Lithuania is something inside my heart.”

And he got the chance thanks in large part to the men who helped a country emerge.

The final act of the 90-minute film deals with Valanciunas’s draft night in 2011. His mother, Danute, understands where her son is in the history of her country, how he got there and how the journey truly began with that Olympic game.

“Some twists in history are really big and Lithuania got caught up in those twists,” she said to close the documentary. “For basketball players and for every young person, the walls have opened to choose your own path. They were born and raised in a different spirit, the independence spirit. They are the children of independence. That’s the truth.”

Good Stuff!

Lietuva: The "Other Dream Team" Enjoys World Premiere

Lithuanian Dreams Come True

By TERRY LYONS
Column in DigitalSportsDesk.com


You've heard of Red Square, right?

If you were around in 1992, you might've heard the rallying cry of the '92 Lithuanian Olympic team, "Better Dead than Red." Surely, if you were an avid sports fan, you remember the team of vagabonds parading into the Olympics in their Grateful Dead-funded tie-dye T-shirts in the most memorable medal ceremony of all-time, held after the USA thrilled the world and accepted their gold medals.

Actually, to those in attendance in Barcelona, the bronze medalists, aka "The Other Dream Team," stole the show. They were the headliners in a post Cold War, Berlin Wall, coming out party that Olympic Games TV anchorman Jim Lampley called, "one of the cosmic turning points of the 20th century."

Thankfully, the moment in time, the important movement in world history is captured on film. Just like their United States counterparts, often called the "greatest team ever assembled," the Lithuanian dreamers have a documentary film of their own and, to many, it's a more interesting and compelling story.  At a recent premiere in New York city, all of the lucky attendees, including the Consul General of the Republic of Lithuania in New York, Mr. Valdemaras Sarapinas and his wife, Mrs. Vytė Sarapinienė, had similar thoughts as they beamed with pride after the private screening of the documentary film “The Other Dream Team." Dozens of media members applauded Mr. Marius Markevičius producer/director of the film, who flew back to his native America from the film's world premiere in Vilnius. He, along with 1992 bronze medalist Arturas Karnisovas, a multi-time European player of the year, former US collegiate star and Final Four participant with Seton Hall University, were joined by NBA officials, past and present, United Nations dignitaries and film critics at the event.

In case you haven't heard of the roaring success of the film, it's a documentary that garnered significant praise at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Simply put, the "Other Dream Team" is the amazing story of the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic basketball team, a group of trail blazing athletes who won the bronze at the Barcelona Olympics and left an indelible mark on the history books while becoming the highest grossing documentary film in Lithuanian history after only two weeks in theaters. The film topped the charts among indie films in the USA over its first weekend on screens in just two cities, New York and Los Angeles.  This week, the "Other Dream Team" premieres in Washington DC, Philadelphia, San Diego and Orange County, California before it goes to dozens of cities nationwide.

Led by the impressive and aggressive skills of guard Sarunas Marciulionis and the legendary Hall of Fame center Arvydas Sabonis, along with many other familiar names, the '92 team helped inspire their country's break from the shackles of Soviet rule and Communism. Many of the Lithuanian players - including four of the starting five -  led the (former) USSR to a gold medal, and victory over the USA, at the '88 Seoul Olympics, But, only four years later, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian hoopsters emerged as symbols of freedom and democracy, literally willing newly-independent Lithuania to the medal stand in Barcelona after an emotional victory over the former USSR, who competed as the "Unified" team. The film documents the Lithuanians' experiences behind the Iron Curtain.

Throughout their ordeal, Lithuania's basketball stars always shared a common goal—to utilize their athletic gifts to help their nation bloom. The '92 Lithuanian team won fans around the world for its hard-nosed play, and also with its amazing connection with the Grateful Dead.

Band leader Jerry Garcia, inspired by the team's message of freedom and coaxed by the late Larry "RamRod" Shurtliff who was the "heart and soul" of the band, provided a hefty dose of financial assistance and authorized a distinctive tie-dye warm-up for their friends, complete with the Dead's symbolic icon skeleton, creatively drawn dunking a basketball. My buddy, the late, great "Ramrod" had often watched Marciulionis at Golden State Warriors games and was a regular at the All-Star Game and NBA Finals, riding shotgun alongside the great Bill Walton, Basketball Hall of Famer and self-proclaimed "Deadhead."

In addition to the obvious endorsement of Walton and the remaining band members of the Dead, the film has been championed by some of the greatest names in professional basketball, all who appear in the film.

"Freedom," exclaimed Walton. "Let's go!"

After premieres in NYC and LA, the "Other Dream Team" open in theaters across the country this week. For information, please visit the Facebook page for the film at: https://www.facebook.com/otherdreamteam?ref=ts    or visit the official site of the film at:  http://otherdreamteam.thefilmarcade.com

See the official movie trailer, posted as a DigitalSportsDesk salute to "The Other Dream Team"

Olympic Memories: '84 --> '88 --> '92

The twin-propeller airplane was the first flight out from LaGuardia Airport in New York to Providence, Rhode Island. My destination was the Providence Civic Center, site of the very first in a series of pre-Olympic tune-up games between the 1984 Men’s Olympic Basketball team and a group of National Basketball Association stars thrown together in each city leading up to the opening ceremonies of the Los Angeles Olympics.

Upon arrival at the small arena in downtown Providence, I dropped my bags in the locker room designated for the NBA stars, and John Bagley, a prominent Boston College shooting guard and then-starter for the Cleveland Cavaliers, shouted out, “Hey, what size d’you wear?” 

I wore size 11, larger than the average 20-something male, but tiny in terms of the needs of most NBA stars.  Bagley wore 15s, and he grabbed my cheap pair of PONYs and squeezed his ‘big dogs’ inside as best he could.  He was ready.

Barkley congratulates Kurtinaitis in '92

As I counted some 9-10 NBA stars scattered around the locker, I remember walking down the small corridor to check in with my ABA-USA colleagues whom I knew distantly.  The head of the federation, Bill Wall, was busy hanging a small ABA-USA banner on the scorer’s table, while production assistants from ABC Sports tacked up wrinkled ABC Sports banners in strategic locations courtside. The banners were the type cheesy sports bars would steal and mount to their ceilings or bar room walls. I shook my head. This is sports marketing at the highest level? The Olympics?

Next step was to check in with our opponents, the 1984 USA Olympic Team, mainly to see my college buddy, Chris Mullin, who had just been named to the team. The players were all dressing, pulling on athletic socks and preparing for the Sunday afternoon game.  I figured the “right” thing to do would be to introduce myself to USA head coach Bobby Knight, then the vaunted coach of the Indiana Hoosiers.

“Coach,” I exclaimed with some bravado and confidence, “I’m Terry Lyons of the NBA, and I’m helping out with our players for today’s game.  If there’s anything I can do to help you out, please let me know.”

Simple enough, right? Knight’s response was classic. 

“If we need any help from you, we’re in big bleepin’ trouble,” he said.

I looked him dead in the eye, pivoted, and never looked back. I didn’t speak a word and haven’t said a word to him ever since.  I’m sure he realizes it’s his loss, right?

The USA played its series of games against the NBA stars, and all was well as they took the gold medal at the Games with the likes of Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Mullin - all fresh out of college – leading the way.  Standing in that locker room in Providence, I would never have imagined that eight years later, I would be inside the USA locker room in Barcelona, preparing the 1992 USA Basketball Dream Team to walk out to accept their gold medals, minutes after their resounding victory over Croatia and completing a month-long frenzy that was the birth and coronation of the greatest team in team sports history – The Dream Team.  Just like it was yesterday, I recall the Barcelona volunteer from Olympic basketball operations handing me the official Olympic Games boxscore, a pink page from the “triplicate” hand-written and old-school form.

Four years earlier, I had worked with the 1988 team as it trained throughout the USA before its trip to the ’88 Seoul Olympics under Coach John Thompson, the legend of Hoya Paranoya at Georgetown, the BIG East powerhouse. My lasting memory of that team was some quality time with then College Player of the Year, Danny Manning, who admitted to me that he thought the team was in trouble and that he honestly doubted their ability to bring home the gold. It was a combination of his honest review of their roster and its lack of scoring/shooting and a feeling of total burn-out, even before the team had left U.S. soil.

Indeed, he was right.  The then-Soviet Union defeated the USA and won the gold medal with the likes of the late Coach Alexander Gomelski, future Hawks forward Alexandre Volkov , future Golden State Warriors shooting guard Sarunas Marciulionis , center Arvydas Sabonis, legendary Naismith Hall of Fame inductee and sharp-shooter Rimas Kurtinaitis, who shot the lights out in ’88 and scored from three-point range at will, as USA defensive specialist Dan Majerle couldn’t stop nor contain him.

Whether it was those early days in ’84, the challenge of the ‘88 Games or the pinnacle in 1992, I was very proud to have “USA” on my polo shirt and honored to have played a small part in bringing the NBA players to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics medal ceremony. What many didn’t realize was that I was just as happy to see Lithuania’s Marciulionis accepting his bronze and, even happier for Croatia’s Drazen Petrovic as he accepted his silver. I was extremely proud of my friend Mully, who was now wearing his second Olympic gold.

The times had changed and, because of my job as the NBA Vice President of International Communications. I was thrust into this amazing world of international basketball intrigue.  From the heights of ’92 to the “near scare” in 2000 in Sydney to the lows of 2002 (in the World Championship) and 2004 in Athens when we managed only a bronze, it was a long, strange trip. Even as current USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo and the great Duke coach and multi-year head coach of the senior national team Mike Krzyzewski took to the helm to re-build the USA Basketball men’s teams and, more importantly, their pride, I had a front-row, courtside seat at the table. 

This is the first post in a series of blogs on the Olympic Games. Most will focus on my personal experiences at the Olympics (1992 to 2004), while some entries will come from working alongside the teams in ’84. ’88 and 2008. I will also post interesting viewpoints from the non-basketball Olympians, all gold medal winners. I will post some insights from the Dream Team, conduct a give and take, back and forth Q&A with Jack McCallum, the author of a great 20-year reflection on the Dream Team, and I look forward to providing some insight into the current USA athletes, all representing the USA with the dream of winning an Olympic medal. 

Please stay tuned to the Huffington Post and to my online magazine, http://www.DigitalSportsDesk.com for commentary beginning today and going through the closing ceremonies of London2012.

Posting Up

Be sure to visit Jack McCallum's new blog which will be promoting his new book, DREAM TEAM.  

Dream a little Magic/Bird & Broadway Showtime

The Boston Celtics host the Loa Angeles Lakers tonight on TNT and all the pre-game buzz seems to be about Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson. 

Larry Bird and Magic? 

Yes, during Tuesday night's Celtics home game against the lowly Charlotte Bobcats, Celtics forward Paul Pierce drained a three-point FG to become the #2 scorer in franchise history, surpassing Bird and now trailing John Havlicek. 

Yesterday, it was a full-page, double truck feature in the popular "Inside Track" of the Boston Herald, featuring an in-depth look at the steps being taken by producers Tony Ponturo and Fran Kirmser to stage the Broadway play about the great rivalry, then gradual bonding friendship between Magic/Bird.

Here is Associated Press pro basketball writer Brian Mahoney's take on the upcoming show, complete with Johnson's view:

(Note: For Group Sales information or fan packages originating in New England, please contact Terry Lyons Sports Marketing by email:  tl (at) terrylyons (dot) com)

***

NEW YORK (AP) - Showtime is about to have a whole new meaning for MagicJohnson.The story of the NBA Hall of Famer's rivalry and friendship with Larry Birdis coming to Broadway in "Magic/Bird,'' set to open in April. The twoconsulted in its production, and Johnson can't wait to watch their story told.His "Showtime'' Lakers of the 1980s were a Hollywood hit, and now he'sready to see his name in Broadway's lights."I guess it's the real Showtime,'' Johnson said in a phone interview. "Whenyou think about Broadway and you think about Larry and I being on Broadway,it's definitely at its highest level and I don't think either one of usthought that we would be on Broadway. If we was, we'd be there seeing aplay and not a play about our lives.''It's the second in a planned series of sports-themed plays from producersTony Ponturo and Fran Kirmser, the team behind "Lombardi.'' Kirmser saideven before that show's success, they wanted to tell the story of Johnsonand Bird, who started as rivals in college and finished as Olympicteammates and longtime friends."They played at such a high competitive level and there was equally a highlevel of respect between the two of them,'' Kirmser said. "That is notsomething that we see all the time now and we thought it would be excitingto take a look and relive the rivalry live on stage and important to take alook at this relationship between the two of them.''They reached out initially to Johnson, who first brought his wife, Cookie,to see "Lombardi'' before committing. Then it was on to Bird, who, justlike with the Dream Team 20 years earlier, wanted to first know thatJohnson was on board."That's normally how it usually works with us,'' Johnson said.Friendships between rivals is nothing new in today's NBA, where playersseem just as eager to team up with a foe than beat him. But the fact thatJohnson and Bird became friends was surprising even to them.Their rivalry started when Johnson's Michigan State team knocked off Bird'sIndiana State squad for the 1979 NCAA championship. Bird, the reservedwhite guy from Indiana, would then end up in Boston, while Johnson,outgoing, black and made for the big city, went to the Lakers, who hadnever beaten the Celtics in the NBA finals.They met for the championship three times as pros, with the Lakers winningtwice. But along the way, what started as hatred had softened, to the pointthat Bird said he lost some of his drive once Johnson retired for the firsttime in 1991 after contracting the HIV virus."Larry learned that Magic was also Earvin, so it wasn't all showbiz, andMagic probably learned that Larry had a sense of humor and personalitybehind that sort of tough exterior as well,'' Ponturo said of theirfriendship. "Something that's lasted 30 years in this kind of environmentis a story worth telling.''Johnson and Bird met with the writers and the actors portraying them. Birdwanted assurances the play would be true to his life and found it to beaccurate - though Tug Coker, the actor who portrays him, has dark hair.But Kirmser said Coker, who has appeared on TV in shows such as "How I MetYour Mother'' and "The Office,'' has the same facial intensity as Bird. Shesaid both he and Kevin Daniels, who plays Johnson, play basketball and"really capture the essence of these two individuals.''"They pick up a basketball and you believe it,'' Kirmser said. "And that,for the theater goer, even the theater goer who doesn't know much aboutbasketball, and certainly for the sports fan, is so important because bothrequire authenticity.''Daniels met with Johnson on Monday, asking him about Johnson'scompetitiveness, his preparation, and of course how his relationship withBird evolved."I told him the story about where I had to shoot the Converse commercial atLarry's house, which I wasn't too happy about,'' Johnson said, adding thatDaniels has the right look because he shares Johnson's "magical smile.''The NBA provided historical footage that appears throughout the 90-minuteshow, which Kirmser said covers "draft to Dream Team.''The duo helped turn the NBA into one of America's most popular sports, andinterest in them was reignited after the 2010 HBO documentary "Magic &Bird: A Courtship of Rivals.'' Seeing their highlights again is a treateven for those who aren't normally into theater."A lot of people do grow up with these two,'' Ponturo said. "You sort ofremember it, but to go back and relive some of these games on the video andthe competition, Fran and I have looked at many, many, many hours of video,and you're reminded of their play and some of the amazing shot making andtalents and everything that they had. So those who go to see the show aregoing to be quickly reminded about how wonderful these two were on thecourt.''Johnson plans to be there when the show opens April 11 at the LongacreTheater, maybe even seated next to Bird. And who could have predicted thatwhen they first met?"Just think about sports. How many guys can be linked to each other andstill be champions, competitors, then walk away being friends?'' Johnsonsaid. "It's hard to find that.''

(For Magic/Bird group sales ticket information, please provide information on desired dates to attend the play and the number of seats.  Comment section is best method for inquiries. Or email Terry Lyons Sports Marketing at tl (at) terrylyons (dot) com

Matt Dobek - by McCallum

Sports Illustrated - SI.com's Jack McCallum on Matt Dobek:

***

Sports world loses gem in former Pistons p.r. director Dobek

By Jack McCallum

In mid-April, I flew to Detroit to interview Detroit Pistons public relations director Matt Dobek for a book I'm writing about the 1992 Dream Team. In Barcelona, Matt served as one of four press people attached to the U.S. team, his primary responsibility being coach Chuck Daly, with whom he worked in Detroit. Matt did a superior job, which wasn't surprising; he was a major player in those halcyon days of the NBA, someone who skillfully walked the line as both an advocate for his team and an honest resource for the press.

A few weeks after our interview, Matt called to tell me that he and three other longtime Pistons employees had been abruptly fired by the team. I'm not sure what happened with the other three (I didn't know them), but Matt was escorted out of the building, driven home by a security official and subsequently informed that he would be receiving no severance package. The stated reason for the firing was that Matt had violated a confidentiality clause in his contract.

On Saturday afternoon, he was found dead in his home. He was 51.

Even before the firing, Matt didn't seem happy. In mid-March of last year, longtime Pistons owner Bill Davidson died. Two months after that, Daly died of pancreatic cancer. While it's typical for a strong bond to grow between a coach and p.r. man, the one between Chuck and Matt went well beyond that. They hadn't worked for the same organization since 1992, but they had remained extremely close. During the 2007 NBA Finals in San Antonio, Matt and I and a few other NBA types were riding home from a get-together when Matt decided to call Chuck.

"It's 1 o'clock in the morning, Matt," I said.

"Don't worry," Matt said. "Chuck's up. I know when he sleeps."

Daly answered on the first ring and Matt passed around the phone.

Matt served as the family spokesman during Chuck's cancer ordeal, and in the last moments I spent with Matt, at the end of our interview in April, he handed me a CD of the Daly funeral service. "You might get a kick out of this," he said. "Rollie Massimino's eulogy was fantastic."

After the firing, we talked on the phone several times and he seemed depressed. (I'm not a doctor so I'm not making an official diagnosis.) The Pistons were, to a large extent, his life, and he felt betrayed by the manner in which he was fired and by what he saw as the lack of support from people in the organization, where he had run the p.r. operation since 1981.

I don't know if the Pistons had just cause to fire Matt. I do know that the organization is a mess. The Davidson family still owns the franchise, but the "For Sale" sign is out and the 2004 champions have sunk to the level of mediocrity, having gone 66-98 in the last two seasons.

In the late '80s and early '90s, the Pistons were NBA royalty. And Matt, who was young to be running the p.r. operation of a marquee team, couldn't have been happier. It's not an easy job because p.r. people in pro sports essentially serve four masters. First, the organization (owner, general manager, etc.), which wants nothing more than to project the image of the perfect one-happy-family team. Second, the coach, with whom the p.r. person has a de facto marriage, so closely do they work together for seven or eight months a year. Third, the players, whose wants and needs do not always coalesce with those of the franchise and the coach. And, fourth, the media, who demand inside info from the p.r. man, knowing full well that he can't always provide it.

The best in that business somehow figure out a way to work with all those groups, and Matt did it as well as anyone I've ever been around, especially considering the diversity of personalities on the Bad Boy Pistons of the '80s and early '90s. Over the years, Matt told me one or two things that no doubt deviated from the designated spokesperson party line, but that is the price of maintaining credibility with the media. Some bosses don't understand that. Never did I think that Matt was anything except loyal to the Pistons and never did he say anything to me that hurt the organization. He was a company man without sounding like one, and it was people like Matt who helped keep the Pistons palatable, even as the Bad Boys sometimes did everything to turn off the media.

His loss is most of all a personal tragedy for his family. But it goes beyond that, a loss for the NBA and the sports world in general.

Closing the Book on HofF Class of 2010 and The Dream Team ...

My good friend and longtime professional associate, Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated, was hot on the trail to unearth all of the stories on the 1992 Dream Team.  Although McCallum witnessed every moment of the basketball side of the '92 Olympics and much of the off-court activities, he is still in search of the behind-the-scenes gems witnessed only by those of us who stayed at the team hotel and rode the team bus.

Editors note: The team hotel wasn't all that luxurious (picture a Courtyard Marriott) and the bus rides were often quiet (even Charles).


McCallum was up at the Basketball Hall of Fame for the Enshrinement of 2010 and is still reporting the most interesting of stories.  

Here is one that is a MUST READ:

EIGHTEEN YEARS LATER:  THESE GUYS ARE STILL...THE DREAM TEAM

By Jack McCallum - courtesy of CNN/Sports Illustrated

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Some six hours later, they would be inducted en masse into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. But, at 2 in the afternoon on Friday, an assemblage of basketball's all-time greatest sat around a table in the ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel gossiping like high school kids in the lunchroom.

Most of the talking was being done by -- no surprise here -- Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson. Also at the table, listening and nodding affirmation from time to time as they pecked away at their grilled chicken, were four of their Dream Team mates -- Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin and John Stockton. Lenny Wilkens and P.J. Carlesimo, who were assistants on the 1992 gold-medal winning team, were there, also.

The occasion was a roundtable discussion in which the Dream Teamers reminisced about the '92 Olympics and their time together, Hall of Fame weekends being about nothing so much as reminiscing. NBA Entertainment will be slicing and dicing the 30-minute discussion into clips, probably for the next two decades.

The good people from NBAE had been trying for a while to get the thing started, but the gab session went on. As they entered the room, some of them started yakking immediately about how they wanted to "get it rolling," but then they wouldn't stop talking. Perhaps they realized that, as time goes on, the occasions when they will get together will become fewer and fewer.

Finally, another Dream Teamer, Karl Malone sauntered over from the other side of the huge room.

"If you guys don't mind," began Malone ...

"Anything you say, Karl," interrupted Drexler. "It's your weekend, man."

Malone stopped and embraced Drexler, who had just arrived for the weekend ceremonies at the Hall of Fame, where Malone and Scottie Pippen were to be inducted singly along with the Dream Team collectively.

Malone smiled. "I'm just getting old and grumpy, but I'd like to get this started," he said. This was not an easy group to order around but Malone's words immediately lifted the Dream Team chowhounds off their chairs.

Eighteen years later, they're still a team.

The ensuing discussion offered several priceless moments as a bunch of immortals sat around talking about the best time of their lives. The positive vibe of the thing might've come across as staged, except there was no script and the actual experience was pretty much like that. I covered the team from the opening of training in La Jolla, to the Tournament of the Americas in Portland, to the pre-Olympic camp in Monte Carlo, to the Games in Barcelona, and this was truly a special team with special feelings about each other, feelings that have endured. (You saw the same thing about the 1960 Olympic team, which was also inducted this weekend in Springfield. They won a gold medal 50 years ago in Rome, but the bond remains strong.)

There was Wilkens talking about the concern shown him after he severed his Achilles midway through the Olympics and had to limp through the final four games in a cast. "You guys always looked out for me, made sure I was getting around all right," said the Hall of Fame coach. "I never forgot that."

There was Pippen saying, "Chris, you'll be in next year," referencing the fact that Mullin was not voted in as an individual this year, an inexcusable oversight, by the way, considering the whole of the man's high school and college career, never mind what he did in the NBA. And there was Drexler patting Mullin on the leg in affirmation.

There was Mullin stopping in mid-sentence during a reference to the '84 Olympic team (which he and Michael Jordan were on) to say: "And you three should've been on it, by the way." He was talking to Barkley, Stockton and Malone, all of whom were cut by Bob Knight.

Small matter now. For they will always have Barcelona.

The only '92-ers who weren't at the roundtable were Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Christian Laettner, all of whom did arrive in time for that night's official induction at Springfield's Symphony Hall. The most glaring absence, of course, was that of coach Chuck Daly, who died of cancer in May 2009.

As the discussion evolved, it took on a familiar pattern, the players reprising the roles they had two decades ago. Magic and Barkley talked the most, the former showing his Sunday School sincerity, the latter in a rambling style that interspersed jokes and serious sentiments, often in the same sentence. (One of Barkley's highlights was his rambling tale of the day that Drexler brought two left shoes to a shootaround and was trying to skate through undetected.)

Bird didn't say much, but, when he did, everyone listened. Stockton had to be urged to talk at all and, typically, was self-deprecating when he did speak, partly because that's who he is, partly because he missed a great deal of the Olympics with an injury. Mullin didn't say much either but always made sense when he did; that's how he played. Pippen and Malone, who never stopped smiling the whole weekend, waxed eloquently about how the Dream Team represented the best moment of their professional lives. So did Drexler and Robinson.

Herewith a few highlights of the roundtable:


On the intensity with which the Dream Team practiced:

Magic: "One thing that really got us going was the first day [at training camp] when that college team [led by players like Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, Chris Webber and Allan Houston] came in and beat us. So we said the next day, 'Let's show them what the real NBA is like.' And we turned it on. And then Charles kind of gave an elbow.

Pippen: "It was Carlos Rogers ...

Magic: "And Charles gave it to him and said, 'Welcome to the NBA.'"

Drexler: "I remember Michael and Magic going at it at practice, stirring the pot, getting everybody going."

Wilkens: "Coach Daly was a little worried about our intensity after the Tournament of the Americas. So I went to Magic and told him, and he said, 'Don't worry. I'll take care of it.'"

Magic: "One of the things you guys [the coaches] did was pit West against East, me, Karl, Mullie, John, Clyde, David against Michael, Scottie, Larry, Patrick. Like that. So I went to Michael and said, 'I'm coming at you, so we can get this going, but don't turn into Michael Jordan on me.' Of course, that's what he did."

On the team clicking almost immediately:

Bird: "The main thing that happens when the best get together is that the game speeds up and you have to make plays a little quicker. Basketball is so simple. You can run the pick and roll to perfection; work for the open man; if you don't have a shot, swing the ball. But it doesn't always happen. On this team it happened. It wasn't about scoring because we could've just got it into Charles, who at that time was the most dominant player in the world offensively. But it wasn't about that. It was about playing the game correctly."

Stockton: "At camp, right at the beginning, you could make a list of the qualities you want on a basketball team. Competitive, smart, prepared. This team showed those qualities right away."

Barkley: "When you play with other great players, the game becomes so easy. Normally you play with certain guys and you're thinking, 'Uh, oh, I can't pass him the ball.' That didn't happen with this team. Like you throw a regular guy an alley-oop, all the stars have to be aligned correctly for it to work out. You play with David, hey, just throw it up there and he'll get it. Or sometimes you think, 'Don't throw the ball to a big man coming down on the break.' Well, you do throw it to Karl Malone."

Robinson: "We've all been on all-star teams and it [coming together] doesn't always happen. But this was basketball heaven. What surprised me, from the beginning, was how unselfish everybody was."

Malone: "The way we checked our egos from the beginning. That's what I remember the most."

Barkley: "I still tell everybody today: There wasn't a jerk on the team."

On Larry Legend:

Pippen: "For me, the chance to play with Larry Bird, who I idolized growing up, man ...

Bird: "Believe it or not, Scottie, I remember the first time you tried to guard me. [He meant in an NBA game.] I ain't gonna say what happened but ... Scottie came a looooong way."

Pippen: "I was probably one of these players that Larry did this to." (Pippen mimics Bird's fake overhead pass that made so many opponents turn their head as he went by them.)

Robinson: "I remember the first time I found myself guarding Larry out on a switch. 'Hey, I'm out here guarding Larry Bird,' I thought. And he said something like, 'This one's in your eye.' Then he made the shot."

Malone: "Larry got everybody in Boston at one time or another on that move where he took the ball out and looked down at the floor like something was there. And you'd look down and it would be all over."

Drexler: "When he got ready to shoot over you, he'd blow you a kiss."

On their reception in Barcelona:

Drexler: "You couldn't leave the hotel without an armed militia, helicopters overhead, police escorts. I remember setting up golf with Charles and it was a disaster trying to figure out how to make that happen with the crowds. Obviously it was a disaster when you saw his game."

On the game against Croatia when the Dream Team vowed to shut down Toni Kukoc, who had received a lucrative contract offer from the Bulls. And shut him down they did:

Barkley: "I remember Michael was, like, foaming at the mouth. 'Kukoc makes more money than Scottie and I put together! Wherever he goes, I got him!' And Michael and Scottie shut him down. It was hilarious."

Pippen: "I appreciate you guys talking like that, but it was truly a collective effort. If I got beat on the backdoor, David was right there. In truth? Toni did not have a chance in that game."

On the little things the team did for each other:

Robinson: "At that time, not everybody had won a championship. Michael and Scottie had, Larry had, Magic had. But nobody else. And everybody learned something from somebody. I'd see Karl lifting and how hard he worked. I'd see Mullie shooting in the gym and how hard he worked. And I thought, 'How do I go back to San Antonio and use this?' The experience definitely helped us back with our own teams."

Barkley: "The first day at Monte Carlo a couple of us went to the pool and found out, 'Whoa, a couple of women don't have shirts on.' So we started calling up guys. 'Hey, man, they don't have shirts on down here.' So every day after practice it was, 'Hey, man, where we going?' And the answer was: 'To the pool.'"

On their memories of the gold-medal ceremony:

Malone: "I never served in the military, so hearing that national anthem on that platform was the closest I ever came to serving my country."

Robinson: "I remember looking at everyone's face and saw what it meant to everybody. I'll never forget that."

On the 1996 Olympic team, sometimes called Dream Team II, which included Barkley, Malone, Pippen, Robinson, and Stockton and was coached by Wilkens:

Barkley: "The coach can't say it, but he knows it ? Dream Team II was a nightmare. We had guys bitching about playing time, arguing with Coach Wilkens. I said to Scottie and Karl, 'Man, I played with Larry Bird and Michael Jordan and we didn't have a problem, so what the hell is wrong with these guys?'"

Pippen: "The experience on the '92 team was a lot better than the experience on the '96 team. Not once did I think we would lose in '92. I can't say that about '96."

On Coach Chuck Daly:

Malone: "His hair and everything had to be perfect. When we'd go out on the floor I'd always look back and Coach Daly would be like ...". (Malone mimics a man touching up his hair and smoothing his collar.)

Wilkens: "Chuck worried about everything. I mean everything. But Karl's right. Before the game there would be Chuck ..." (And Wilkens mimics a man touching up.)

Barkley: "Here's what I always thought about Chuck. He was a really good dude. I can't believe he coached those pricks in Detroit."

Wilkens: "I remember standing next to Chuck and looking at you guys on the podium. It was a very emotional time for all of us and Chuck just grabbed my arm and held on. And I looked over, and there was a tear coming out of his eye. That said it all for me."

Dream a little dream...

Steve Luhm of the Salt Lake Tribune takes a stroll down Memory Lane with the Dream Team:  

Springfield, Mass. -  The Dream Team’s first step toward Olympic domination and Friday night’s induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame was a nightmare.

Losing to a bunch of college kids?

Inexplicably, it happened.

Before the Dream Team, NBA players were ineligible for the Olympics. But that changed when FIBA, basketball’s world governing body, changed its rules and permitted professionals to participate at Barcelona in 1992. It was a time of wonderment and great excitement, as fans had never before seen the sport’s greatest players together on one team.

Four years after the United States settled for the bronze medal, USA Basketball used the rule change to put together an Olympic team featuring more stars than the Milky Way. The roster included Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen and Patrick Ewing, as well as the Utah Jazz’s John Stockton and Karl Malone.

Croatia, Brazil, Spain, Italy and the rest of the world didn’t have a chance.

Or did they?


Read on in the SLT:  

Let the Comparisons Begin - 1960? 1992? or maybe even 2008?

The comparisons are starting.  

The first volley comes from Cincinnati, Ohio - where Oscar Robertson is truly KING and actually played as NBA royalty for the Cincinnati Royals, of course. That came long before the guys in Akron/Cleveland who just "couldn't wait to be king."

So, here is one opinion on the comparison between the 1960 US Olympic Basketball Team and the 1992 US Olympic Basketball Team.  Read on for a thought provoking story by Bill Koch via Cincinnati.com:


A Dream Team Before The Dream Team | Cincinnati.com

There was no such thing as a Dream Team in 1960.

When the U.S. Olympic basketball team traveled to Rome, it was merely a sports team on a mission to win a gold medal for its country.

It accomplished its goal without the marketing apparatus that accompanies such endeavors today.

There were no NBA players, but there were plenty of future NBA stars such as Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Jerry Lucas and Walt Bellamy, all of whom would land in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Fifty years later, they refuse to concede anything to the 1992 Dream Team that included Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing among others.

That team also fulfilled its mission by bringing home the gold medal, but to considerably more acclaim than its predecessors in 1960.

"What did the Dream Team have that we didn't have?" Robertson said. "They had more publicity and made more money. That's where it stops."

Both teams will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., Aug. 13.

The Dream Team - the first to include NBA players - won its games by an average margin of 43.8 points, a shade more than the 1960 team's 42.4. But the Dream Team did have a distinct advantage in Hall of Famers, with 10 (including 2010 inductees Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen) to four for the 1960 team.

Coached by legendary University of California coach Pete Newell - who passed away in 2008 at the age of 93 - the 1960 team held its opponents to an average of 59.5 points and ran the U.S. winning streak to 36 games over five Olympics.

Robertson and Lucas, the youngest player on the team at age 20, were the leading scorers, each averaging 17.0 points. West averaged 13.8 and Adrian Smith 10.9.

Robertson dominated

Robertson had averaged 33.7 points as a senior at the University of Cincinnati the previous season and was named the national player of the year. He was a player of such enormous skill that his teammates still speak with reverence about his exploits on the court.

"He played the game like he invented it," said Bob Boozer, a 6-8 forward from Kansas State who averaged 6.8 points in the Olympics. "Oscar was James Naismith in tennis shoes. He did what he wanted to do."

The 1960 Olympics were the Games of Cassius Clay and Rafer Johnson, who became the first black athlete to carry the flag for the American delegation. It was also the first time the Summer Olympics were televised, with CBS paying $394,000 for the broadcast rights.

The Olympics were the second foray into international basketball for Smith, who played on Kentucky's Fiddlin' Five 1958 national championship team. He had played in the Pan American Games the previous year in Chicago with Robertson.

"When I was at Kentucky, I used to read about him," Smith said. "I said nobody's really that good. Until I made the Pan American team and saw him play in the Pan American Trials. I got to be a teammate of his and then I realized what a special, great player he was."

Playing in the Olympics was the stuff of fantasy for Smith, who grew up on a tobacco farm about 12 miles outside of Mayfield, Ky.

His family's house had no electricity and no running water. The ball that he learned to shoot with was made of his dad's old socks that his mother sewed together.

"I never thought anything like that would ever happen to me," Smith said.

Year's delay

Boozer wanted to play in the Olympics so badly that he postponed his NBA career for a year to maintain his amateur status. During that time, he worked for Caterpillar and played for its team in the National Industrial Basketball League with no assurance that he would make the Olympic team.

"I graduated from Kansas State one year before the team had a chance to be assembled," Boozer said. "I just said I'm not going to go pro until I have a shot to make the Olympic team.

"You probably couldn't do that today (because of the money). That's been the highlight of my basketball career. The only one that would probably be up there with it was my last year with the Milwaukee Bucks winning the championship (in 1971)."

The Americans clinched the gold medal with a 90-63 victory over Brazil. Before the game, Smith promised himself that he would take home a souvenir to go with his gold medal.

His first objective was to secure the game ball. When that didn't work out, he went to Plan B.

"I convinced somebody to give me a sharp instrument," Smith said. "Walt Bellamy put me on his shoulders and I cut that net down. I still have that net today."

Five future Royals

Nine of the 12 players on the 1960 Olympic team eventually played in the NBA. Four - Robertson, Lucas, Bellamy and Terry Dischinger - became Rookie of the Year.

"It was just an awesome team," Smith said. "We had speed. We had shooting. We had rebounding. We had height. If you had kept that team together, we might have been a contender for an NBA championship."

Three years later, five members of the 1960 Olympic team - Robertson, Lucas, Boozer, Smith and Jay Arnette - did play together on the 1963-64 Cincinnati Royals.

They didn't win the NBA championship, but they produced a 55-25 regular-season record, the best of any Royals team during its 15-year stay in Cincinnati.

But that team still finished four games behind Boston in the Eastern Division and lost to the Celtics, 4 games to 1, in the division finals.

"Maybe we needed a sixth man," Robertson said.

Actually, five might have been enough if they had stayed together for the entire season. But Boozer, who averaged 11.0 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Royals, was traded to the New York Knicks on Dec. 16 after 32 games.

"It was a surprise," Boozer said. "I was highly disappointed to leave the team. We had some good relationships on that team. I love Cincinnati."

Lucas top rookie

Lucas joined the Royals a year after his storied career at Ohio State, having originally signed with George Steinbrenner's Cleveland Pipers in the American Basketball League, which collapsed in 1962.

He was named Rookie of the Year in 1963-64, combining with Robertson, the league's Most Valuable Player, to produce 49.1 points, 27.3 rebounds and 13.6 assists per game.

But Lucas was injured in the semifinal playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers and was not the same player against the Celtics in the playoffs.

Robertson would eventually win an NBA championship with the Bucks in 1971 on the same team with Boozer. Lucas would win a title in 1973 with the New York Knicks.

Regardless of what they accomplished later in there careers, the players on the 1960 Olympic team will always be remembered.

"Being with the guys I played with and having the friendships over the years has been tremendous for me," Robertson said.

"It was a magic moment that no one even knew that much about then, until they decided to bring up the Dream Team. Then they looked back and saw how good of a team we did have."

PS:  A quick TL comment.  Like I stated when asked to compare the 1992 and 2008 teams, it's very different.  Apples and Oranges.  Different era and different style of basketball.  If asked to pick the 'best' of the 1960, 1992 and 2008 teams, I would tend to give the edge to '92 because of their strength up the middle.  It was impossible to stop the scoring of Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson in the paint, nevermind the work being done offensively and defensively by the likes of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and all.

The 1960 team needed a nickname, they say?  How about The Bryl Creem Team?