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!

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Lietuva: The "Other Dream Team" Enjoys World Premiere nblo.gs/CFPxG
— Terry Lyons (@terrylyons) September 26, 2012

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.